From an article by Zack Ford at Thinkprogress:
In an appearance on Meet The Press this weekend, Newt Gingrich reiterated a claim he’s made many times before that Massachusetts’s legalization of marriage equality discriminated against the Catholic Church’s ability to provide adoption services. In this particular appearance, he offered his most exaggerated description of what happened when Catholic Charities in Boston closed its adoption services, claiming that the state “outlawed” Catholic doctrine.The essential point of Gingrich's argument: "It is impossible for the Catholic Church to have an adoption service in Massachusetts that follows Catholic doctrine." The essential point of the rebuttal, as put forward by Ford: "Catholic Charities could continue to operate, but if it wants to continue receiving state funding, it has to comply with state laws."
As elsewhere, the supposed cultural conflict between secularization (equal protect and privilege under the law for all persons, regardless of sexual orientation) and religion (here, the Roman Catholic church and one of its charitable initiatives) is a product of misrepresentation rather than irreconcilable values.
