Eaton: Foster care controversy another sorry chapter in Illinois history

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Eaton

Updated: February 5, 2012 8:13AM

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan may be relieved the dark political clouds swirling about the Catholic Charities foster care/adoption controversy have passed over, leaving behind no apparent residual damage.

Raised in House Speaker Mike Madigan’s Irish-Catholic household, the situation had to make the attorney general uncomfortable. After all, what Chicago Catholic would want to be caught between church doctrine and Chicago’s powerful gay rights lobby?

Amid the storm, the state abruptly ended Catholic Charities’ oversight of thousands of needy children. Lisa Madigan’s office had found that Catholic Charities’ caretaker interview process excluded same-sex couples. In light of that, the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services’ ended its long-standing pact with Catholic Charities, and despite legal objections filed in court, the 90-year relationship was over.

The effect was that either faith-based agencies accept and cooperate with the state’s mandate to accept same-sex couples as foster and adoptive parents or those agencies can no longer partner with DCFS.

Public outcry was minimal. All Catholic Charities branches decided to shutter their agencies. One reopened as a non-sectarian agency after severing ties with the church and its belief system.

Children cared for by Catholic Charities began being transferred to agencies that open their doors to same-sex and civil-union couples as well as single and traditionally married caretakers.

Except for those families and children directly affected, the community has forgotten the whole mess.

That is, except for Evanston civil rights attorney John Mauck, who hasn’t forgotten the innocent children whose lives are being traumatized again. A director of One Hope United, one of Illinois’ largest foster care organizations, Mauck remains frustrated with what happened last year.

“Lisa Madigan threatens child placement agencies with shutdown if they even consider same-sex unions as a factor in deciding about a child’s best interest,” Mauck, who has argued religious liberty cases since 1985, said. “She has shut her eyes to a serious risk to children.”

Mauck points to statistics regarding same-sex relationships, including a study cited in the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy that indicated same-sex couples are far more likely to break up than heterosexual marriages.

Mauck said most heterosexual couples provide a badly needed and stable environment to children who have been through more than their fair share of emotional trauma.

“In deciding which family might be best for a child, adoption agencies have long weighed many relevant factors, such as the age of adopting parents, education levels, strength and duration of marriage,” Mauck said. “Do not the alarming stats on gay lifestyles and other risks counsel that child placement professionals should, in the best interest of the child, consider all risk factors?”

Mauck’s concerns are valid. And even more troubling is that a single complaint from a gay Chicago couple about their experience with Lutheran Children and Family Services spawned the whole adoption agency controversy, according to files obtained from the attorney general’s office.

The couple had met a 15-year-old homeless gay teen and inquired with the local Lutheran-affiliated adoption agency about providing foster care. When being interviewed, the couple were told by a staffer of the agency’s policy that it would not develop or license families who identify themselves as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered or “questioning.”

The couple contacted state Rep. Sara Feigenholtz’s (D-Chicago) office. Illinois had a $110 million contract with Lutheran Children and Family Services to provide foster care, but Feigenholtz’s office said its hands were tied because the agency was listed as a “faith-based” organization.

“Illinois has a law against discrimination based on sexual orientation when it comes to foster care and adoption and yet these faith-based organizations can get away with that?” the gay couple’s complaint says. “I would think that the state of Illinois and the DCFS would welcome all people they can to foster kids, young adults or teenagers who have got a bad deck of cards in life.”

Indeed.

Not only did the attorney general’s office inquire into the Lutheran foster agency mentioned in that lone complaint, it also delved into the inner workings of five Catholic agencies and the nondenominational Evangelical Children and Family Services.

Not only did the state’s highest law enforcement official ask about interview procedures, she asked about employee hiring policies, agency connections to religious denominations and organizations as well as budget information.

None of these measures have been challenged yet, but with concerned citizens such as John Mauck voicing discontent, this whole matter may need to be readdressed.

What church-state controversy could be next? Could Catholic hospitals be required to perform abortions and sterilizations or lose their federal and state subsidies? Could churches be threatened with losing their tax exemption if their ministers continue to preach against certain sexual proclivities?

That’s ridiculous, one might say. But who would’ve thought that Catholic adoption agencies would be compelled to shut down, either?

Fran Eaton is a Southland resident who co-founded and edits the conservative political blog, illinoisreview.com