When Your Chickens Come Home to Roost

marina

Sun, Oct 21 2018, 12:51 am

https://theintercept.com/2018/.....ries/

This is an article about how a Protestant foster care agency is now seeking to discriminate against Jews and other nonProtestants using similar legal tactics and approaches that that have been used against gay and lesbian people in the past.

Supporting discrimination often comes back to bite Jews. Be careful who you get in bed with that’s all.

Fox

Sun, Oct 21 2018, 1:20 am

I'm not entirely sure why you see this as problematic, though I have no doubt that Glenn Greenwald finds it outrageous.

Presumably, there are people whose children are going into foster care who want them in an Evangelical Christian environment, just as I would want my children in an Orthodox Jewish environment.

Ideally, a range of agencies and inter-agency cooperation exist to meet the religious and cultural needs of families and kids.

It sounds like the problem is that some of the other agencies aren't robust enough -- not that a particular agency is true to its mission.

Btw, I noticed tonight that Glenn Greenwald has been shadowbanned for several days on my Twitter feed. He'd been distracted by the Brazilian elections, but maybe he's once again committed treason by suggesting the Dems develop a platform.

Fox

Sun, Oct 21 2018, 1:42 am

marina wrote:

Because they get state funding?

This is the difference between "establishment of religion" and "establishment from religion."

If the state required that every child entering foster care be placed in an Evangelical Christian home, you would be correct. But the state seems to be funding a number of agencies in an attempt to accommodate a variety of religious and cultural needs.

The question is whether those other agencies are able to adequately meet the needs of children whose families prefer they not go to Evangelical Christian homes.

Insisting that foster care providers disregard the religious and cultural background of their clients is not just bad social work; it is especially likely to harm Jewish kids, who will often be placed with non-Jewish families.

Fox

Sun, Oct 21 2018, 2:06 am

marina wrote:

I guess if you don’t see anything wrong with a government- funded agency saying “No Jews allowed,” then there’s no point to discussing this really

I am not opposed to the government contracting with faith-based organizations to serve people in their communities or who wish their services.

The practice helps Jews far, far more than it hurts us. I couldn't begin to count all the agencies, especially in NY, that receive government contracts to serve Jews.

Those agencies certainly discriminate in a variety of ways against non-Jews. Typically, they are required not to discriminate against clients, but the services they provide are focused on a particular religious and cultural demographic.

Therefore, an Indian-American client could certainly go for assistance to the Boro Park JCC, but it would be closed on Shabbos and wouldn't have a Hindi-speaking staff member. There would likely be no one who understood Hindu dietary issues or similar concerns. If the staff at the Boro Park JCC felt they weren't able to adequately help the client, they would ideally pick up the phone and call the Indo-American Center and refer the client to someone there.

Stripping religion from everyone's life as a prerequisite for government assistance shouldn't be the goal. Making sure that reasonable options exist for the respectful accommodation of religious and cultural preferences should be.