Denver Catholic

15 DENVER CATHOLIC | APRIL 11-17, 2015 A s the Colorado Rockies kicked o¤ Opening Day, local youth are gearing up for another season of spring sports such as baseball, soccer or softball. As par- ents, what can we do to protect them from poten- tial abuse as we entrust them to a new group of strangers? 1 Learn all you can about the youth pro- gram and its policies with respect to child protection. Ask if coaches and parent volunteers must provide criminal background checks as a part of their jobs. Pro- grams through Catholic schools do. If your child is participating in a neigh- borhood club, fi nd out. If not, suggest it. While most predators do not have criminal histories, it would be horrifi c to fi nd out after the fact that your child's coach was a convict and you put him or her in harm's way. You don't want to regret not asking the question. 2 Ensure the adults that have access to your child are not violating your child's physical, emotional and behavioral boundaries. No coach should be alone with your child where they cannot be seen or heard. Watch for adults who touch too much, or in places that are private to your child. There is a vast di¤ erence between an adult-child soccer game and a game of "dog pile on coach." Refuse to allow your child to par- ticipate in such activities, and make sure the pro- gram is aware if a coach is engaging in these games. 3 Monitor texts and Internet communi- cations to see who your child's "friends" are. Don't allow them to "friend" or "follow" anyone they don't know in person, and examine communications between adults and your child. Tell your child you are watch- ing their social media, then do it. Be observant of adults who regularly text or message your child. 4 Beware of adults who ridicule your rules or refuse to honor them. At best, they are being careless with your values. At worst, they are interested in driving a wedge between you and your child. "If you were my son, I'd let you watch an R-rated movie. I can't believe your parents don't trust you. You are so mature." Due to their inability to appreciate risk, young people—especially ado- lescents—can be drawn to this type of adult. 5 Watch your child's behavior. Are they suddenly disin- terested in attending practice or games? Are they anxious about being around particular people? Remember that juveniles, women and married men commit sex crimes. Don't presume your child is safe alone with people in these categories just because you perceive it unlikely they would victimize your child. Ask questions about why your son or daughter is anxious or uncomfortable. It could be pre-game jitters, but it could be that someone is pressuring him or her to engage in acts that make him uneasy. Five ways to keep young athletes safe I n 1993, the Religious Freedom Res- toration Act (RFRA) passed the Democrat controlled U.S. House of Representatives unanimously. It passed the U.S. Senate (also controlled by Dem- ocrats) by a vote of 97-3. It was signed into law by Bill Clinton. RFRA, allows the government to place a "substantial burden" on someone's religious beliefs and practice so long as the government can demonstrate that it's doing so in pursuit of some "com- pelling government interest." Assuming such a compelling interest exists, the government must pursue that interest in a way that is least restrictive to reli- gious freedom. Sound sensible enough? Recently Indiana Governor, Mike Pence, signed into law a provision that does for his state what RFRA did at the federal level. Hysteria ensued. Gov. Mike Pence, and a merry band of "bigots." Why? While some folks—Bill Clinton, Gov. Pence, all but three members of the 103rd Congress—believe that before government forces people to violate their religious beliefs it should have a good reason to do so, it seems a lot of other people think religious freedom is just a false-front for discrimina- tion against gays and lesbians. Which explains why #BoycottIndiana was trending on Twitter. The State of Indiana, it seems, is the new Brendan Eich (remember Mozilla's former CEO?). Gen Con, the largest table-top gaming convention in the country, is consider- ing moving out of state. That might not sound like a big deal, but it is: more than 50,000 gamers attend the convention every year, which has an enormous impact on the local economy. The CEO of a large cloud-com- puting company— Salesforce, Inc.— declared that the outfi t would boycott the state of Indiana, lest its customers or employ- ees "face discrimination." For what it's worth, Salesforce gladly does business in communist China. And the president of the NCAA, Mark Emmert, released a statement express- ing his "concern" about the implications of the law and issuing a thinly veiled threat to go after the Hoosier state where it really hurts—college basket- ball. Indianapolis frequently hosts the men's NCAA basketball tournament, including this year's Final Four and national championship. "Moving forward," Emmert wrote, "we intend to closely examine the implications of this bill and how it might a¤ ect future events as well as our workforce." Think that's an idle threat? A bill sim- ilar to Indiana's was vetoed by Arizona's Republican Governor, Jan Brewer, after the NFL threatened to move Super Bowl XLIX out of Arizona if the bill became law. This is complete madness. RFRA has been federal law for more than 20 years, during which time gays and lesbians have enjoyed unprecedented acknowledgment, accep- tance and approval. Yet a combination of dem- agoguery, falsehoods, and ideological myopia has convinced otherwise sane people that applying the principles of RFRA at the state level sig- nals the arrival of a new Jim Crow era. When Bill Clinton signed RFRA in 1993, he spoke of how faith is a defi ning part of the American character, and the irreplaceable role religion plays in build- ing up and healing the wounds this nation su¤ ers. And he warned that this role, and the protection of religion, must never be taken for granted, but rather, rea rmed: "It is high time we had an open and honest rea rmation of the role of American citizens of faith, not so that we can agree but so that we can argue and discourse and seek the truth and seek to heal this troubled land." So today I ask you to also think of that. We are a people of faith. We have been so secure in that faith that we have enshrined in our Constitution protection for people who profess no faith—and good for us for doing so. That is what the First Amendment is all about. But let us never believe that the freedom of religion imposes on any of us some responsibility to run from our convictions. Let us instead respect one another's faiths, fi ght to the death to preserve the right of every American to practice whatever convictions he or she has, but bring our values back to the table of American discourse to heal our troubled land. Can you imagine any politician of national prominence—from either party—uttering such words today, with- out facing charges of anti-gay bigotry? It's becoming increasingly di cult. Which raises the troubling question: If the defense of religious freedom comes to be seen as the hallmark of big- otry, and the deep well of this nation's religious soul is sealed o¤ from public life, with what can we hope to heal the wounds of our troubled land? Reprinted with permission from CatholicVote.org Stephen White is a fellow in the Catholic Studies program at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C. Guest Column STEPHEN WHITE Margaret Ochoa is a former child dependency and neglect prosecutor who now facilitates Safe Environment Training for the Archdiocese of Denver. Guest Column MARGARET OCHOA, J.D. Indiana is the new Brendan Eich i FREE CLASSES The Archdiocese of Denver o¡ ers parent- ing classes in child abuse prevention. Visit www.archden.org/ child-protection.

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