Reprinted by permission of The Christian Post
By Ethan Cole
Christian Post Reporter
Wed, Jul. 16 2008 02:39 PM EDT
Senator John McCain said he opposes allowing gay couples to adopt children, but his campaign clarified Tuesday that the Republican presidential candidate believes the issue should be left to states to decide following criticisms from gay rights groups.
The putative Republican presidential nominee had said in an interview published Sunday in the New York Times that he thinks it has been “proven that both parents are important in the success of a family.”
“[S]o, no, I don’t believe in gay adoption,” he stated.
McCain, who has an adopted a daughter with his wife, Cindy, said he wanted to encourage adoption, but that the adoptive parents should be a man and woman, or a traditional couple.
But after his statement drew criticisms from gay rights groups, his campaign issued a clarification statement.
“John McCain could have been clearer in the interview in stating that his position on gay adoption is that it is a state issue, just as he made it clear in the interview that marriage is a state issue," Tucker Bounds, a campaign spokesman, said in a statement. “He was not endorsing any federal legislation."
McCain is opposed to same-sex “marriage” and endorsed a ballot initiative to overturn California’s state ruling that legalized the practice, but believes each state should decide how to define marriage, rather than the federal government.
Bounds said McCain was only expressing his “personal preference” that children be raised by a mother and father, but recognized there are cases of abandoned children who have no caretaker.
“John McCain believes that in those situations that caring parental figures are better for the child than the alternative,” Bounds said, without elaborating if McCain believes a gay couple adopting a child is better than the child remaining in the orphanage.
The Republican candidate has been carefully treading between constituencies in an effort to avoid offending his diverse body of support. Although touting his conservative stance on abortion and gay “marriage” to values voters, McCain often seems hesitant to declare his position on these issues when in a more moderate crowd for fear of offending potential voters.
McCain will need the support of Republican voters as well as independents to beat Democrat rival Barack Obama.
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3 comments:
As long as we're deciding who is and isn't allowed to raise kids, then to keep things fair I would like to see a federal initiative for the screening of all potential parents. Under this plan, all married couples who want to have children must be evaluated by a panel of doctors and psychologists to determine their physical, emotional, and psychological capacity to raise children into well-adjusted, successful adults. Furthermore, the government must investigate the financial standing of these couples, to determine whether they can afford to provide children with a stable and nurturing environment.
If one or both potential parents fails to meet these national and/or statewide standards, the couple shall be prohibited from raising children. They will be sterilized and blacklisted from every adoption agency in the country.
And that's just for the potential parents. Married couples who already have children under the age of 18 will be subject to annual evaluations administered by the government, and if they fail to meet the criteria, their children will be removed from their homes and placed in foster care.
Finally, since the Bible provides the best model by which to raise children into the next successful generation, all parents will be required to raise their children in the Christian faith and attend church at least once a week, under penalty of fine and/or imprisonment.
Does this sound like something Senator McCain would support? If his sole concern truly is the children, then he will. If his reasoning is not at all influenced by homophobia, then he will.
Somehow I don't think my idea will work. And not just because McCain's personal history says nothing of family values. Here is a man who cheated on his first wife, Carol, with his present wife, Cindy, among others, and then wanted a divorce to avoid continuing his years of infidelity. Yet somehow he thinks he has the authority to determine what counts as "family values." Give me a break.
Most couples can make children on their own and don't need any sort of screening process.
Those who can't get screened. Part of the screening, even for heterosexuals, involves ensuring that the child will go to a good, safe, healthy home. A home where the child will automatically be missing out on an opposite-sex parent isn't a good start. When you consider that homosexual relationships are of very short duration compared to heterosexual ones, and the few that do have real longevity are rarely monogamous, that doesn't speak well for stability in the home. Consider also that homosexuals experience domestic violence at much greater rates than heterosexuals and it's really hard to justify exposing a child to this kind of environment. Ponder the higher risk of AIDS, other STDs, depression, substance abuse and suicide...well, it's rather insane to seriously consider exposing a child to this kind of environment.
Obviously the satire was lost on you.
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