Globe Ed Has Harsh Words For Mitt

One of today's Boston Globe editorials has some harsh words for Mitt Romney on the subject of Catholic Charities vs. gay adoption:

It was in 1960 that John F. Kennedy confronted anti-Catholic bias in a famous speech to the Greater Houston Ministerial Alliance. "I believe in an America . . . where no public official either requests or accepts instructions on public policy from the pope, the National Council of Churches, or any other ecclesiastical source," he said. "I do not speak for my church on public matters, and the Church does not speak for me."

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Nearly a half-century ago, John Kennedy challenged bias against the Catholic Church. Now, Romney is defending bias from the Catholic Church. Romney works for all the people of Massachusetts. It is a shame to see him doing exactly what Kennedy forswore nearly a half-century ago: accepting instructions on public policy from the pope.

One more comment on this issue. I keep hearing that allowing the Church to discriminate in adoptions would somehow be a 'compromise'. That doesn't make any sense to me, because I always thought that in a compromise both sides give up something. It seems to me that this is a binary situation, where no compromise is possible -- either the Church can discriminate in adoptions (as they want to) or they can't (as state law requires). It's like a light switch, either it's on or it's off. There's no middle position that I can think of, unless maybe we let Catholic Charities discriminate Sunday through Wednesday, but not Thursday-Saturday, and that doesn't even make any sense. If you want to blame the legislature for the end of the Catholic Charities' adoption services, that's fine, but don't pretend it's because they failed to compromise; if anything, it's because they refused to capitulate.