A Church Out Of Touch With Reality

From Tara:

Prince of Peace Catholic School in Clinton, Iowa, is denying scholarship recipient Keaton Fuller recognition as part of the school's graduation ceremony to be held on May 20.  Why?  Because Keaton Fuller is receiving the $40,000 Matthew Shepard Scholarship, awarded by Iowa's Eychaner Foundation "for his scholastic achievement and work reducing homophobia in his school and community as an openly gay student."  The school encouraged Fuller to apply, but now that he's been chosen as the recipient, the school has indicated that the Foundation's Scholarship Committee may not attend and present the award to Fuller at the ceremony.


For several recent years, I have presented students at various local graduation ceremonies with a citizenship award on behalf of the Story County and Iowa State Bar Associations.  I have been given a place on the program and an opportunity to say a few words about the Bar and about the deserving recipient.  It's a pleasure for me to do this, and a proud moment for the student and the student's friends and family.  Fuller, to his credit, has written an open letter to his school asking that his achievements also receive the public recognition they deserve.
The Catholic Church is so far out of touch with reality that its decisions seem designed to drive away young believers in droves.  The Vatican attacks nuns.  A Catholic school in Minnesota holds an assembly to denounce gay marriage--and while they're at it, adoption and single parenthood, leaving students in tears in the school's bathrooms.  And a young man's graduation will be marred by his school's refusal to recognize who he is and what he's accomplished.


Prince of Peace's website homepage includes this lovely passage from the Bible: "Let the children come to me, do not prevent them, for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these."  Mark 10:14.  What a shame that the school's decisionmakers apparently don't believe that.