Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Pagan
Texas Adoption Discrimination Bill – It’s Complicated

Texas Adoption Discrimination Bill – It’s Complicated

Last updated on: May 18, 2017 at 3:00 am by John Beckett

Texas Adoption Discrimination Bill – It’s Complicated 2017-05-15T18:58:36-06:00 John Beckett

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

“A governmental entity or any person that … 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’s sincerely held religious beliefs.”

key excerpt from HB 3859, currently under deliberation in the Texas State Senate

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.

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.

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.

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 “parental rights” over actually protecting children. But that’s another rant for another time.

The shortcomings of the system notwithstanding, it’s 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.

The problem is that our diverse society has some very different ideas about what that means, particularly when it comes to religion.

Most of us of a religiously liberal persuasion believe it’s 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’t 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’s soul in jeopardy.

This isn’t like the anti-gay bakeries. That’s really straightforward: you get to choose the scope of your business, but you don’t get to limit the scope of your customers. Nobody’s going to force a Muslim grocer to sell pork, but he can’t refuse to sell his halal beef to a Jew. If you’re going to bake wedding cakes, you bake cakes for anyone who wants to buy one. Even if it’s a same sex marriage, even if it’s an interracial marriage, even if it’s a marriage between divorced people. You do business with the public, you do business with the whole public.

Adoption agencies aren’t merchants selling goods. They’re social services providers entrusted with the lives and futures of some of the most vulnerable children in the world.

It’s easy to say religion should have no bearing on adoption. But it does.

Assume, for a moment, that you’re 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’re loving and supportive and stable, orientation and religion just don’t matter.

And then a Southern Baptist couple walks in. They’re happy, healthy, and stable. They’re good people who no doubt will love a child dearly and will do their best to give them a good home.

But you know what their child will be taught: the few will go to heaven and the many will burn in hell. The Bible is “perfect” and “without error.” Being gay is a sin. Wives are to be submissive to husbands.

Do you still think religion shouldn’t matter? Having grown up in that religious environment, I would have a hard time placing any child with a Southern Baptist couple.

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?

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’t it? Can you in good conscience place a child with a couple who will bring that child up in a religion you genuinely believe is harmful?

There is no easy answer here. Deep down all religions aren’t the same. Intelligent, compassionate, well-intentioned people can have radically different ideas about what is good and right, and what is harmful.

Politics is not about crafting a perfect solution, but about compromise and tradeoffs. It’s 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 – and I can think of no one more vulnerable than children awaiting adoptive and foster homes.

I do not know how to remove religion from adoption and fosterage decisions.

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’ll be brought up in an exclusivist religion and suffer great emotional and spiritual harm because of it.

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 – I expect the bill will pass, if it doesn’t run out of time before the end of the legislative session. If it passes, the Governor is certain to sign it.

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?

Previous Post

May 16, 2017

A Druid Method

Next Post

May 21, 2017 Portrait of a Priesthood

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Books Community CUUPS Druidry Foundations and Context Gods and Goddesses Magic Myth Nature Ritual Spiritual Practice Theology Travel Uncategorized Videos

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Thrown into a muddy cistern for prophesying doom, I sank into the mire until rescued. What was my crime?

Select your answer to see how you score.

False prophecy Treason Blasphemy Prophesying Jerusalem's fall