The ACLU, that champion of civil liberties (but only for progressives), is trying to shut down an adoption agency in the state of Michigan because it has a religious foundation. This has become a trend, with something very similar happening right now in Philadelphia (the state cut ties with a religious foster agency putting dozens of children in limbo), and it needs to stop. The last thing the government or the ACLU needs to do is meddle in the business of agencies placing foster children in loving homes because said organizations are religious.
In Dumont v. Lyon, the ACLU is suing the state of Michigan, hoping to force it to end its partnerships with religious adoption agencies. The ACLU sued the state of Michigan last year to forbid the state from partnering with faith-based adoption agencies. Never mind the fact that this would put the lives of foster children who depend on this agency for placement at risk of being in limbo and without the care they need.
There are approximately 13,000 children in Michigan’s foster care system and hardly enough enough families to take them all in. Michigan relies on private agencies like St. Vincent Catholic Charities and others, to help care for them. Even though St. Vincent cares for children regardless of their race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or gender identity, and its beliefs have never prevented a child from being placed in a loving home, the ACLU says St. Vincent is discriminating because of the agencies beliefs on same sex marriage. Thus, the ACLU would like the state of Michigan to sever its partnership.
“We couldn’t have adopted without the support of St. Vincent,” said Melissa Buck, a mother of five children with special needs adopted through St. Vincent in a statement provided by the Becket Fund, who is defending St. Vincent Catholic Charities. “And we continue to rely on vital support services St. Vincent provides to this day. If these programs were shut down, it would be devastating for our family.” A decision on this case is expected by the end of August.
House Republicans are working to advance an amendment that would protect the federal funding of adoption agencies that refuse to work with same-sex couples on religious grounds like these cases. It passed along party lines with all but one Republican voting against it.
The amendment dictates that if states and localities do “discriminate” against these agencies, the Department of Health and Human Services will withhold “15 percent of the federal funds the state or local government receives for a program that provides child welfare services.”
Rep. Nancy Pelosi spoke out against the bill, calling it a “sickening new low” for Republicans and accused them of bigotry. While Republicans insist the bill is about inclusion, rather than exclusion, it’s not clear if the bill will pass the narrow margins of the Senate.
In the meantime, instead of targeting religious organizations that help children find loving homes, organizations like the ACLU and cities like Philadelphia need to refocus their efforts on actual discrimination and real crimes against families.
What these foster agencies are doing is neither discriminatory, nor criminal — their religious origins merely provide them with the very foundation that encourages them to help children in the first place.
Nicole Russell is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. She is a journalist in Washington, D.C., who previously worked in Republican politics in Minnesota. She was the 2010 recipient of the American Spectator’s Young Journalist Award.
