How Faith-Based Charities Work to Help Foster Kids Find Homes that Fit Their Faith
Private faith-based charities housing undocumented immigrant children in nine states are legally allowed to reject any couple seeking to become foster parents based on religious objections.
As The Daily Beast reports, immigrant minors who are taken into custody by Customs and Border Protection are sent to the Office of Refugee Resettlement in the Department of Health and Human Services. From there ORR tries to place the kids with a sponsor, usually a relative. The last option is a "licensed program willing to accept legal custody; or an adult individual or entity seeking custody."
The HHS oversees more than 100 shelters in 17 states. Some of these shelters are operated by charities housing children separated at the border by the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy.
Under Texas law, faith-based nonprofits can refuse foster or adoptive parents "under circumstances that conflict with the provider's sincerely held religious beliefs," won't be penalized or lose government funding because of it, according to The Daily Beast.
This can also include singles wanting to adopt children through a Christian agency.
BCFS Health and Human Services, a Baptist charity based in San Antonio, oversees the care of undocumented children in several locations in The Lone Star State.
BCFS spokesperson Evy Ramos told the Daily Beast, "We ask for Christian families because the overwhelming majority, nearly 100 percent, of the children placed in our foster care program define themselves as Christian or are children from a family that define themselves as Christian. Because of this, we actively seek foster families that attend a Christian church."
When appropriate, Ramos said BCFS has placed Muslim children in Muslim foster homes, adding, "We always do what is in the best interest of the child."
Michigan is another state with a religious exemption law for child service providers.
Bethany Christian Services, located in Grand Rapids, Michigan, had taken in 81 children separated from their parents at the end of June. Nearly half of the children separated from their families under the zero-tolerance policy have been reunited with their families, according to The Daily Beast.
The agency said it is not evangelizing to the children and all would be returned to their parents.
However, not all faith-based charities who provide foster and adoption services have religious requirements. According to its website, The Salvation Army, says it is "an evangelical part of the universal Christian Church. Its message is based on the Bible. Its ministry is motivated by the love of God. Its mission is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and to meet human needs in His name without discrimination."
But as Salvation Army Children's Services outreach coordinator Angie Gillen told the Daily Beast, "We welcome families of all faiths and both heterosexual and homosexual couples or individuals are eligible to be licensed as foster or adoptive families with us. The important thing is to find families who will be able to give safe and nurturing homes to children in need."
Some professionals in the child welfare field see a problem with faith-based criteria for prospective foster parents.
Richard Garnett, a law professor at Notre Dame Law School and director of the university's Program on Church, State & Society, doesn't see any problems with current state laws "so long as there are other options available for people who do not meet these criteria and so long as it is clear that the government is supporting the service provisions, not the religious criteria."
"Should the government say that every such organization, in order to operate legally, must follow the same policies (including non-discrimination policies) that publicly-run organizations do?" In my view, the answer to this question should be 'no,'" Garnett said in an email to the Daily Beast, noting that there are many faith-based religious schools and colleges that receive public funds, both directly and indirectly.
