{"id":32189,"date":"2018-03-15T06:37:42","date_gmt":"2018-03-15T10:37:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=32189"},"modified":"2018-03-15T06:37:42","modified_gmt":"2018-03-15T10:37:42","slug":"shutting-down-faith-based-adoption-agencies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2018\/03\/shutting-down-faith-based-adoption-agencies\/","title":{"rendered":"Shutting Down Faith-Based Adoption Agencies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Traditionally, Christian and other religious organizations have taken the lead in arranging adoptions.\u00a0 \u00a0But new laws and policies forbid adoption agencies from \u201cdiscriminating\u201d against same-sex couples who want to adopt a child.\u00a0 This goes against the religious convictions of many faith-based agencies.\u00a0 The result is that a number of church-affiliated adoption agencies have been forced to shut down.<\/p>\n

Michigan has passed a law that would carve out an exemption that would allow religious adoption and foster care organizations to continue to operate.\u00a0 (Virginia, Texas, and South Dakota have passed similar laws.)\u00a0 The Michigan law would require agencies that cannot, in good conscience, serve particular clients to refer them to agencies that can.\u00a0 Thus, same-sex couples would not be prevented from adopting.<\/p>\n

\n

Despite this compromise, the American Civil Liberties Union is challenging the law and has filed suit to prevent a Catholic charity and other faith-based adoption agencies from participating in state adoption programs.\u00a0 This lawsuit is being accompanied by a public relations campaign to vilify religious adoption workers as bigots and child abusers.<\/p>\n

Read Elizabeth Kirk,\u00a0The ACLU Fights a Michigan Law Protecting Faith-Based Adoption Agencies:<\/a><\/p>\n

A<\/span>doptive parents and former foster children in Michigan came forth this week to defend their interest in the protection of faith-based foster care and adoption services in the state of Michigan. After faith-based foster-care and adoption agencies were forced to close in several states, Michigan (and several other states, including Virginia, Texas, and South Dakota) passed laws granting protection to such agencies so they could continue to serve families and children \u2014 as they always have done \u2014 in accordance with their deeply held religious beliefs.<\/p>\n

The Michigan statute stipulates that \u201ca child placing agency shall not be required to provide any services if those services conflict with, or provide any services under circumstances that conflict with, the child placing agency\u2019s sincerely held religious beliefs contained in a written policy, statement of faith, or other document adhered to by the child placing agency.\u201d Such statutes makes sense in the context of deep divisions over emerging rights for same-sex couples, on the one hand, and, on the other, a recognition of the important contributions of faith-based social service organizations to their communities. Faced with entrenched and seemingly irreconcilable differences, statutes such as the one in Michigan reflect a commonsense compromise that allows all concerned parties in a diverse and pluralistic society to work together for the benefit of vulnerable children.<\/p>\n

Not content with this compromise, however, Kristy and Dana Dumont, a same-sex couple represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, sued Michigan\u2019s Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and Children\u2019s Services Agency,\u00a0seeking to prevent<\/a>\u00a0St. Vincent\u2019s Catholic Charities and other faith-based organizations from partnering with the state of Michigan to provide foster care and adoption services. In support of the lawsuit, and timed to coincide with it, the Movement Advancement Project, a think tank, launched a\u00a0public-relations campaign<\/a>\u00a0in which faith-based agencies and social workers are compared with bigots and child abusers.<\/p>\n

[Keep reading. . .]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Photo by Kslewellen \u2013 Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/w\/index.php?curid=48113579<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Traditionally, Christian and other religious organizations have taken the lead in arranging adoptions.\u00a0 \u00a0But new laws and policies forbid adoption agencies from \u201cdiscriminating\u201d against same-sex couples who want to adopt a child.\u00a0 This goes against the religious convictions of many faith-based agencies.\u00a0 The result is that a number of church-affiliated adoption agencies have been forced […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":32315,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,19,26,27],"tags":[91,136,4295,6395,6398],"class_list":["post-32189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-family","category-government","category-law","category-life-issues","tag-adoption","tag-american-civil-liberties-union","tag-anti-discrimination-laws","tag-faith-based-adoption-agencies","tag-same-sex-adoptions"],"yoast_head":"\nShutting Down Faith-Based Adoption Agencies<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Anti-discrimination laws are forcing faith-based adoption agencies that won't place children with same-sex couples to shut down.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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