And the Christianists Say Gays Are Unfit to Be Parents?

One of the reasons espoused by the Christianists for pushing for passage of Proposition 8 in California is to "protect children. The ever disingenuous Randy Thomasson says it is vital for Californians to approve the constitutional amendment in order to protect "[c]hildren's innocence" and he argues that adult choices should not be pushed upon small children. Of course the Christianist like Thomasson oppose gay adoption and claim that gays are not fit to raise children, saying only straight couples should raise children. They conveniently ignore the fact that countless numbers of children remain warehoused in foster homes where they are often shuffled from one home to another. Worse yet, they ignore just how unfit some heterosexuals are when in comes to child rearing. Nonetheless, they STILL would prefer, apparently, that children be raised by unfit heterosexuals.

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Two recent cases underscore the reality that being straight does not make one automatically a fit parent and demonstrate that child WOULD be far better off with loving and responsible gay parents. The first example is a couple in California who were charged Thursday with 62 felony counts for child abuse and could spend the rest of their lives in prison. Here are highlights from KNBC-TV 4 in Los Angeles:

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A mother and father accused of binding their children's hands and ankles for hours were charged Thursday with 62 felony counts and could spend the rest of their lives in prison, prosecutors said.

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The charges include 21 counts of false imprisonment by violence, 21 counts of child abuse, 18 counts of corporal injury on a child with great bodily injury and two counts of torture, Simmons said. If convicted, the maximum sentence for the torture charges is life in prison, Simmons said.

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The parents did not allow contact between the children and their grandparents, and they were seldom allowed outside the home and apparently had never been to school, Simmons said. "They were always basically with mom or dad," she said. The mother maintained that she home-schooled them, but there is no proof she complied with home-schooling requirements, and the children are not at grade level, Simmons said.

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As if that case isn't horrible enough, a story from Alabama in a small town just north of Mobile involving an evangelical preacher is even more shocking. This "Godly Christian" molested his daughter and when caught in the act by his wife, murdered her and placed her body in a freezer. But I guess since the guy was heterosexual, somehow he automatically was a more fit parent than say a nice gay couple. Note how just as in the California case, the whack jobs were home schooling their children. Here are highlights on this case of heterosexual parenting from CNN:

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(CNN) -- An evangelical preacher killed his wife several years ago and stuffed her body in a freezer after she caught him abusing their daughter, according to police and court documents. Anthony Hopkins, 37, was arrested Monday night at the Inspirational Tabernacle Church of God in Christ in Jackson, Alabama, just after he had delivered a sermon to a congregation that included his seven other children, officials said. He faces charges including murder, rape, sodomy, sexual abuse and incest.

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The affidavit related the daughter's story as follows:
Her mother, Arletha Hopkins, 36, caught her father abusing her in a bathroom in November 2004. Afterward, her parents argued, and her mother locked her father out of the house. The father came to the daughter's window and asked her to let him in, and she did so. The next morning, her father asked her to help him hide her mother's body in the freezer in the laundry room of the home.

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The girl said she moved out of the home about two weeks ago and was living with a neighbor. She told police that her mother's body was still in the freezer. When authorities went to the home, no one was there, as Hopkins and the other children were at the church. A body was found in the freezer, the affidavit says.

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He said Anthony Hopkins did not have a regular church but apparently preached in various areas around the South. "Part of the mystery here is that, apparently, none of these children were in school" but were being home-schooled, Mobile County District Attorney John Tyson said. "Home schooling, under this situation, removes almost any chances of us catching up with these kinds of things until there is a catastrophe."