Why do some progressive Democrats ignore bigotry and intolerance in religions?

[thucythucy]

34. At first glance this seems to be less about Catholic hospitals "taking over"

and more about the failure of our for-profit health care system to serve rural and poor areas.

"While many independent rural hospitals are closing amid greater financial pressures, Catholic health systems have managed to weather the tough financial climate, in part due to their nonprofit status, the authors noted."

For "greater financial pressures" read the push by stockholders of for-profit health care organizations to cut losses and maximize profits. But there's no immutable law of physics that says health care has to be for-profit. That for-profit services somehow can't survive in an environment in which non-profits can just demonstrates the inefficiency--and inhumanity--of for-profit health care.

In general poorer and rural communities are seeing a retrenchment in a wide variety of social services, including medicine. Supermarket chains for example are closing down, creating "food deserts" in rural poor communities and in many inner cities. The gap often gets filled--if it gets filled at all--by non-profits and/or religious organizations. Food pantries, collectives, organizations whose mission is not the bottom line. So as I said, in many communities it isn't a choice anymore between pro-choice and anti-choice health care, but between restricted care and no care at all.

This has happened in other fields as well. I recently found myself advocating for an asylum seeker currently in ICE custody, and found the only attorneys willing to even consider the case worked at a center funded by Catholic Charities. Legal Services was gutted under Reagan and Bush, with the trend continuing under Trump, so finding "for-profit" attorneys to handle such cases is nearly impossible, especially in red states, if you don't have the do re mi. The same is true for disability rights law. As I also said in an earlier post, the most effective way to fight all of this is to GOTV and elect progressive Democrats. A Catholic hospital--or any other religion based social service--should NEVER be the only option available to people in need.

Thanks for the links though. I'll give them all a more thorough reading when I have time. I sincerely appreciate the effort you've made in providing this kind of material.

Best wishes.