{"id":6476,"date":"2017-05-18T03:00:08","date_gmt":"2017-05-18T09:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/?p=6476"},"modified":"2017-05-15T18:58:36","modified_gmt":"2017-05-16T00:58:36","slug":"texas-adoption-discrimination-bill-complicated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2017\/05\/texas-adoption-discrimination-bill-complicated.html","title":{"rendered":"Texas Adoption Discrimination Bill \u2013 It\u2019s Complicated"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u201cA governmental entity or any person that \u2026 operates under governmental authority to refer or place children for child welfare services may not discriminate or take any adverse action against a child welfare services provider on the basis, wholly or partly, that the provider has declined or will decline to provide, facilitate, or refer a person for child welfare services that conflict with, or under circumstances that conflict with, the provider\u2019s sincerely held religious beliefs.\u201d<\/p>\n

key excerpt from HB 3859<\/a>, currently under deliberation in the Texas State Senate<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I oppose HB 3859. It will have a negative impact on LGBT families, Pagan families, and other non-Christian families. It allows religious charities entrusted with serving all the citizens of Texas to serve only their own communities. It weakens anti-discrimination laws, and it moves us farther away from becoming a tolerant, multicultural society. It should be rejected.<\/p>\n

But do not think this is a simple black and white case. This situation is complicated, and we do ourselves no favors if we fail to examine the circumstances surrounding it.<\/p>\n

Like most states, most adoption agencies in Texas are private entities. They are licensed by the state, but they are not run by the state. Many of them are run by churches and other religious groups, and some are quite old, pre-dating the welfare state. In an era before effective contraception, when abortion was illegal and highly dangerous, they provided humanitarian services for mostly-young, mostly-poor women and the children they were unable to care for.<\/p>\n

In their early days they were unregulated. Some exemplified the best of religiously-motivated public service, while others were abusive and exploitative. State regulation reduced but did not completely eliminate those abuses. Texas Child Protective Services remains underfunded and underenabled by a state legislature that values low taxes and \u201cparental rights\u201d over actually protecting children. But that\u2019s another rant for another time.<\/p>\n

The shortcomings of the system notwithstanding, it\u2019s fair to say most adoption agencies have good intentions and genuinely want to place children in homes where those children will be loved, protected, and given the best possible chance of growing up to be happy and responsible adults.<\/p>\n

The problem is that our diverse society has some very different ideas about what that means, particularly when it comes to religion.<\/p>\n

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

Most of us of a religiously liberal persuasion believe it\u2019s the job of parents (birth, adoptive, or foster) to provide children with a general religious and ethical education but also to support and encourage them to find the religious path that calls to them. We overlook the fact that members of some religious groups believe their religion is the only true religion, and that failing to raise a child in the proper religion has eternal consequences. It isn\u2019t just that a Catholic adoption agency would prefer to place children with Catholic families to support the Catholic church. A Catholic adoption agency may strongly believe that to do anything else is to place the child\u2019s soul in jeopardy.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t like the anti-gay bakeries. That\u2019s really straightforward: you get to choose the scope of your business, but you don\u2019t get to limit the scope of your customers. Nobody\u2019s going to force a Muslim grocer to sell pork, but he can\u2019t refuse to sell his halal beef to a Jew. If you\u2019re going to bake wedding cakes, you bake cakes for anyone who wants to buy one. Even if it\u2019s a same sex marriage, even if it\u2019s an interracial marriage, even if it\u2019s a marriage between divorced people. You do business with the public, you do business with the whole public.<\/p>\n

Adoption agencies aren\u2019t merchants selling goods. They\u2019re social services providers entrusted with the lives and futures of some of the most vulnerable children in the world.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to say religion should have no bearing on adoption. But it does.<\/p>\n

Assume, for a moment, that you\u2019re working at an adoption agency. You place children with gay couples and straight couples, poly families and single people. You place them with UUs and Buddhists and Pagans, with Episcopalians and Methodists and atheists. If they\u2019re loving and supportive and stable, orientation and religion just don\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n

And then a Southern Baptist couple walks in. They\u2019re happy, healthy, and stable. They\u2019re good people who no doubt will love a child dearly and will do their best to give them a good home.<\/p>\n

But you know what their child will be taught<\/a>: the few will go to heaven and the many will burn in hell. The Bible is \u201cperfect\u201d and \u201cwithout error.\u201d Being gay is a sin. Wives are to be submissive to husbands.<\/p>\n

Do you still think religion shouldn\u2019t matter? Having grown up in that religious environment<\/a>, I would have a hard time placing any child with a Southern Baptist couple.<\/p>\n

Would you have similar trouble? Then do you understand why Baptists, Catholics, or Orthodox Jews would have a problem placing a child with Pagans, Muslims, or atheists?<\/p>\n

This question would not go away even if we nationalized all adoption agencies and made them secular. Some person has to make a decision as to whether or not a given couple would make suitable adoptive parents. Is religion a legitimate factor or isn\u2019t it? Can you in good conscience place a child with a couple who will bring that child up in a religion you<\/em> genuinely believe is harmful?<\/p>\n

There is no easy answer here. Deep down all religions aren\u2019t<\/em> the same. Intelligent, compassionate, well-intentioned people can have radically different ideas about what is good and right, and what is harmful.<\/p>\n

Politics is not about crafting a perfect solution, but about compromise and tradeoffs. It\u2019s not the job of government to take sides on issues of culture and religion, but to protect all its citizens and residents, especially the most vulnerable \u2013 and I can think of no one more vulnerable than children awaiting adoptive and foster homes.<\/p>\n

I do not know how to remove religion from adoption and fosterage decisions.<\/p>\n

At the end of the day, a decision has to be made. While I understand and respect the sentiment behind this bill, I oppose it. Its real-world impact will be to make it harder for LGBT families, Pagan families, and other non-Christian families to adopt children. And because some agencies will disqualify these families, it increases the chance a child will be placed in a home where they\u2019ll be brought up in an exclusivist religion and suffer great emotional and spiritual harm because of it.<\/p>\n

As I write this on Monday evening, HB 3859 has passed the House and has cleared a Senate committee. The Texas Senate is generally more conservative than the House \u2013 I expect the bill will pass, if it doesn\u2019t run out of time before the end of the legislative session. If it passes, the Governor is certain to sign it.<\/p>\n

I dream of living in a society that is tolerant and inclusive, where the intolerant and exclusivist are so few they are irrelevant. Whether it becomes law or not, the Texas Adoption Discrimination Bill brings into focus the fact that we do not live in such a society, nor are we likely to any time soon. How can we best live our lives the way we are called to live them, and how can we promote our virtues and values in the wider culture in which we compete?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cA governmental entity or any person that \u2026 operates under governmental authority to refer or place children for child welfare services may not discriminate or take any adverse action against a child welfare services provider on the basis, wholly or partly, that the provider has declined or will decline to provide, facilitate, or refer a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1129,"featured_media":6478,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[272],"tags":[1308,1309,4,5,663,1307],"class_list":["post-6476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community-2","tag-adoption","tag-hb-3859","tag-pagan","tag-paganism","tag-religious-tolerance","tag-texas-legislature"],"yoast_head":"\nTexas Adoption Discrimination Bill \u2013 It\u2019s Complicated<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"\u201cA governmental entity or any person that \u2026 operates under governmental authority to refer or place children for child welfare services may not\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2017\/05\/texas-adoption-discrimination-bill-complicated.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Texas Adoption Discrimination Bill \u2013 It\u2019s Complicated\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cA governmental entity or any person that \u2026 operates under governmental authority to refer or place children for child welfare services may not\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2017\/05\/texas-adoption-discrimination-bill-complicated.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-05-18T09:00:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-05-16T00:58:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/243\/2017\/05\/ADF-Texas-Imbolc-2017-63-600x300.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2017\/05\/texas-adoption-discrimination-bill-complicated.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2017\/05\/texas-adoption-discrimination-bill-complicated.html\",\"name\":\"Texas Adoption Discrimination Bill \u2013 It\u2019s Complicated\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-05-18T09:00:08+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-05-16T00:58:36+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad\"},\"description\":\"\u201cA governmental entity or any person that \u2026 operates under governmental authority to refer or place children for child welfare services may not\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2017\/05\/texas-adoption-discrimination-bill-complicated.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2017\/05\/texas-adoption-discrimination-bill-complicated.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2017\/05\/texas-adoption-discrimination-bill-complicated.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Texas Adoption Discrimination Bill \u2013 It\u2019s Complicated\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/\",\"name\":\"John Beckett\",\"description\":\"Musings of a Druid, Pagan, and Unitarian Universalist.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad\",\"name\":\"John Beckett\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"John Beckett\"},\"description\":\"I grew up in Tennessee with the woods right outside my back door. Wandering through them gave me a sense of connection to Nature and to a certain Forest God. I\u2019m a Druid graduate of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids, the Coordinating Officer of the Denton Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans and a former Vice President of CUUPS Continental. I\u2019ve been writing, speaking, teaching, and leading public rituals for the past eleven years. I live in the Dallas \u2013 Fort Worth area and I earn my keep as an engineer.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/author\/johnbeckett\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Texas Adoption Discrimination Bill \u2013 It\u2019s Complicated","description":"\u201cA governmental entity or any person that \u2026 operates under governmental authority to refer or place children for child welfare services may not","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2017\/05\/texas-adoption-discrimination-bill-complicated.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Texas Adoption Discrimination Bill \u2013 It\u2019s Complicated","og_description":"\u201cA governmental entity or any person that \u2026 operates under governmental authority to refer or place children for child welfare services may not","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2017\/05\/texas-adoption-discrimination-bill-complicated.html","og_site_name":"John Beckett","article_published_time":"2017-05-18T09:00:08+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-05-16T00:58:36+00:00","og_image":[{"width":600,"height":300,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/243\/2017\/05\/ADF-Texas-Imbolc-2017-63-600x300.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"John Beckett","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"John Beckett","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2017\/05\/texas-adoption-discrimination-bill-complicated.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2017\/05\/texas-adoption-discrimination-bill-complicated.html","name":"Texas Adoption Discrimination Bill \u2013 It\u2019s Complicated","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website"},"datePublished":"2017-05-18T09:00:08+00:00","dateModified":"2017-05-16T00:58:36+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad"},"description":"\u201cA governmental entity or any person that \u2026 operates under governmental authority to refer or place children for child welfare services may not","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2017\/05\/texas-adoption-discrimination-bill-complicated.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2017\/05\/texas-adoption-discrimination-bill-complicated.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2017\/05\/texas-adoption-discrimination-bill-complicated.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Texas Adoption Discrimination Bill \u2013 It\u2019s Complicated"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/","name":"John Beckett","description":"Musings of a Druid, Pagan, and Unitarian Universalist.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad","name":"John Beckett","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"John Beckett"},"description":"I grew up in Tennessee with the woods right outside my back door. Wandering through them gave me a sense of connection to Nature and to a certain Forest God. I\u2019m a Druid graduate of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids, the Coordinating Officer of the Denton Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans and a former Vice President of CUUPS Continental. I\u2019ve been writing, speaking, teaching, and leading public rituals for the past eleven years. I live in the Dallas \u2013 Fort Worth area and I earn my keep as an engineer.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/author\/johnbeckett"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1129"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6476\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}