Kansas Says Christians Can Adopt

​Kansas lawmakers have overridden Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto to enact a new law defending the rights of religious foster and adoptive parents. Effective immediately, the state can no longer deny licenses to families simply because they won’t affirm gender ideology or same-sex relationships. The law stops bureaucrats from turning personal belief into a disqualifier, and it sends a clear signal: faith-based convictions don’t bar you from opening your home to a child in need.

This victory for religious liberty won’t make headlines in major media, but it should. It directly answers a troubling trend where belief in traditional marriage or gender roles becomes an automatic disqualifier for otherwise qualified parents.

Kansas is an encouraging story, for similar religious discrimination against adoptive parents is happening around the country. In Massachusetts, Mike and Kitty Burke – a Catholic couple with years of experience caring for children – were denied the chance to foster because they wouldn’t recite the state’s preferred catechism on sex and identity. “Their faith is not supportive and neither are they,” wrote a social worker, as if belief in Christian doctrine was evidence of neglect.

That mindset is spreading. Oregon, Vermont, and other states are testing policies that require prospective foster parents to parrot gender orthodoxy before they can bring a child into their home. These policies don’t protect kids – they punish adults with unapproved beliefs. More to the point, these policies violate the free exercise of religion clause of the First Amendment. The state cannot make religious adherence a liability for civic participation. It cannot force a person to say what they do not believe. And it cannot close the door on loving homes simply because a couple affirms, as generations have, traditional religious beliefs.

That’s what makes Kansas so important. It stops the government from forcing people to either lie or lose out for holding traditional religious beliefs. Opponents say the bill opens the door to discrimination. It merely allows people to hold different beliefs without punishment. That’s not discrimination – that’s pluralism. You might disagree with traditional views on sexuality. But we all have a stake in this debate: A society that can’t handle differing views on sexuality has already lost its way.

There’s an old joke about a couple that was so progressive that they adopted a gay baby. Today, we’re watching the inverse: systems so rigidly ideological they’ll leave kids in hospitals and public homes rather than place them with a conservative family.
​
Kansas said no.

DONATE & HELP US PROTECT YOUR FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS