I personally have never understood how someone could with a straight face make the argument that if you're going to be charitable you must conform to certain standards, else you can't be charitable.

Ethics guru Sen. Ted Kennedy, for example, has condemned Catholic Charities for its gay-adoption ban, as has the Human Rights Campaign, which issued a news release titled, "Boston Catholic Charities Puts Ugly Political Agenda Before Child Welfare."

One could more accurately charge that gay activists in this case have put their own political agenda before child welfare. After all, what public interest is being served in crushing Catholic Charities? Whom does it serve that Catholic Charities abandon its role as matriarch of adoption agencies in Massachusetts? Certainly not the children.

What this unhappy battle really is about — a battle in which all Americans have a stake — is freedom of conscience.

As one Catholic observer put it to me: "Frankly, prudentially, you can easily make the decision that it's better for children to be in a gay home than to languish in foster care, but this is fundamentally about controlling the church."