Sidelined by the state

“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” James 1:27 memorably describes two themes that have long distinguished the faithful Christian—care for the vulnerable and a deliberate distance from the world’s favorite sins. So it is a tragically distorted system that pits these two callings against each other—banning believers from fostering children unless they affirm the state’s orthodoxy about human identity and sexual orientation.

Shane and Jennifer DeGross face this unfortunate dilemma even as they seek to help vulnerable children in their home state of Washington. The state currently suffers from a shortage of caregivers willing and able to provide care, and officials admit they “struggle with recruiting and retaining” people. During 2021, nearly 7,000 children were placed in out-of-home care. In the 2023 fiscal year, those officials had to place hundreds of foster children in emergency housing—like unlicensed hotel rooms—a whopping 4,570 times.

For nine years, Shane and Jennifer have helped alleviate this crisis. Inspired by their Christian faith, they offered a temporary but welcoming home to a newborn and three toddler girls. In 2022, however, they hit a roadblock while seeking to renew their foster care license.

In 2021, Washington’s Department of Children, Youth & Families established a new policy requiring foster parents to promise to promote the agency’s gender ideology to a hypothetical child or young person under their care. Washington’s licensed foster parents must commit to using inaccurate pronouns. They must also agree to create an environment promoting LGBT ideology by hanging Pride flags in their home or taking children to events like Pride parades. Curiously enough, the department implemented the new policies after settling a lawsuit that stopped Washington from enforcing nearly identical policies.

Shane and Jennifer respectfully clarified that their Christian beliefs would not allow them to lie to a child about his or her identity. The DeGrosses emphasized that they would love and care for any child under their care. They would seek to resolve any conflict the same way they would with their own children. They simply could not affirm a lie. The state denied their application.

The DeGrosses later learned they weren’t the only Washington family sidelined by the state’s new policy. Their story is not unique. I’ve written here before about Jessica Bates—a Christian mother of five from Oregon who is challenging a very similar example of state-sponsored discrimination. And I’m aware of similar stories across the country—in states like Massachusetts, New Jersey, and others—where Christians have been thwarted by comparable policies.

The DeGrosses and others like them didn’t think that their desire to care for vulnerable children would end up in a lawsuit. But people who are forced to speak things they don’t believe and go places that make them complicit in sin are not free people. And the DeGrosses and others who choose to go to court aren’t merely seeking justice for themselves. Under the new regime, Washington is forcing its most vulnerable children to carry the weight of this injustice.

Keeping the DeGross family out of foster care does nothing to help the infants who can’t speak words like pronouns, or toddlers who do not know what “gender identity” means. Excluding them does not benefit older children within the state’s system who do not suffer from gender dysphoria. It further hurts children who share the DeGrosses’ faith and want to go to Christian homes.

A win for the DeGross family would not only benefit them but the other well-equipped Christian families seeking to alleviate the needs in their communities. A win would benefit Washington’s overworked social workers who are continually striving to make sure kids don’t go homeless. Most importantly, a win would benefit the children who need a safe and loving home—a respite from the drug use, abuse, acute poverty, and other challenges facing many young lives.

This is the sanity that some states are seeking to restore within their foster care systems. Idaho, for example, recently passed a law ensuring that state and local government officials won’t discriminate simply because of a provider or parent’s religious beliefs and moral convictions.

Our cultural disagreements over identity and sexuality were never an entirely academic exercise. But today, they are as raw and personal as ever. Policies like the one in Washington are costing our most vulnerable children and the families most prepared to help them.

Not every Christian believer is called to foster a child or file a lawsuit. But, for those believers wishing to live out the “pure religion” that James describes, silence on the sidelines is not an option.