Christian Foster Care and Adoption Agencies in Kansas Won’t Have to Worry About This

Christian foster care and adoption agencies that refuse to place children with homosexuals won’t face government penalties because of a new law Governor Jeff Colyer recently signed.

The law applies to agencies that receive state funds. The government can’t revoke licenses or permits solely because the agency believes placing children with certain kinds of people would conflict with their religion’s tenets. The governor said that more children in the state will have the opportunity to be adopted.

From the Topeka Capital Journal:

“In some circumstances we are seeing faith-based adoption providers leaving states, resulting in fewer providers of adoptions and other critical services,” Colyer said. “This bill is about ensuring that doesn’t happen here and making sure we have a full range of services available to Kansas kids.”

State legislators and advocacy groups opposed and praised the bill, but there is little middle ground on the subject of creating a law that permits organizations with a religious underpinning that do business with state government on adoption and foster care placements to selectively avoid interaction with Kansas gays, lesbians and other adults eager to build a family.
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Under the measure, child-placement agencies working in association with the state of Kansas cannot be required to perform, assist, counsel, recommend, consent to, refer or otherwise participate in placement of a child for foster care or adoption if it would violate the organization’s sincerely held religious belief.

While there were many who expressed alarm at the bill’s signing, the governor attracted support from Secretary of State Kris Kobach, state legislators and lobbyists.

Religious foster care and adoption agencies that receive taxpayers’ money are burdened by the “constitutional” separation of church and state, a doctrine neither stated nor implied in the U.S. Constitution. Without religious-freedom protection, which is in the Constitution, these agencies were required to submit to “anti-discrimination” policies.

The state’s protection law is necessary to unburden these agencies and allow them to perform the services they were created to provide. The individuals who run these organizations are also taxpayers.