No love for Christian foster agencies

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: Christian foster care organizations back in the crosshairs.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Last week, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) moved to scrap Trump-era waivers for faith-based foster care agencies. Those waivers allowed them to follow their religious convictions on marriage and sexuality without running afoul of federal nondiscrimination law.

With the Biden administration lifting those protections, some foster care agencies may find themselves fighting expensive legal battles over their rights of conscience. Again.

REICHARD: Joining us now to fill us in on what’s happening here is Steve West. He’s an attorney and writes about religious liberty issues for WORLD Digital. Good morning, Steve!

STEVE WEST, REPORTER: Good morning, Mary.

REICHARD: Well, bring us up to speed on this, Steve. This goes back to a move made by the Obama administration in 2017, if I’m recalling correctly.

WEST: It does. Just a week before President Obama exited office in January 2017, the Department of Health and Human Services added sexual orientation and gender identity to existing nondiscrimination regulations that addressed race, sex, and national origin. The rule required recipients of HHS funding to “treat as valid the marriages of same-sex couples.” So child-placement organizations like Greenville, South Carolina’s Miracle Hill Ministries faced a choice: Comply, or exit the foster care ministry; place children with same-sex couples and violate religious convictions, or lose federal funding and your state license.

REICHARD: Back in 2019 the Trump administration issued a waiver for certain states. What did that waiver say and what did it accomplish?

WEST: In essence, it said you don’t have to comply with the additional restrictions in order to continue to receive federal funding. You can continue to place children only with those who have Biblical marriages and who are Christians. The rule remained but was waived for child placing agencies in South Carolina, Michigan, and Texas.

REICHARD: Wondering why did that waiver to just those three states?

WEST: Good question. I believe it was because of the political pressure brought to bear. For example, in South Carolina, then Republican Governor Henry McMaster went to bat for Miracle Hill asking HHS for the waiver and signing an executive order barring the state’s Department of Social Services from denying a license to an agency solely based on its religious identity and beliefs. And in Michigan, Catholic charities challenged the Obama administration rules--so these were well-known hot spots.

REICHARD: Okay, so the Biden administration removed those protections for Christian foster care groups in all 50 states. How did HHS justify that move?

WEST: They have pitched it as a waiver that was too broad and as a return to a system of considering waivers on a case-by-case basis. Yet it’s fairly obvious to observers that this is another case of advancing a progressive agenda wedded to the LGBTQ movement. Under the Trump administration, HHS had a very active section of its Civil Rights Division that really policed the agency for its own violations of religious liberty--particularly under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. But this recent move suggests that emphasis is over. If that’s true, then religious liberty will likely be subordinated to other causes--like the gay rights agenda.

REICHARD: And what will this mean for these foster care organizations going forward?

WEST: If this rule remains in place, it likely means they will be back to a choice: comply, or exit. That’ll be a real loss for orphaned and vulnerable children, as faith-based ministries are huge players in a strained foster care system. Yet I suspect we haven’t heard the end of this. Some of these ministries, like Miracle Hill, have for the better part of a century been serving children. They won’t give up without a fight.

REICHARD: A fight that costs a lot of money. Well, before we leave you, Steve, I believe you have positive update on a case that you and I spoke about recently, a professor subjected to cancel culture?

WEST: That’s right, Mary. You’ll recall a theater professor at Coastal Community College in Conway, South Carolina. The college suspended Steven Earnest from teaching duties in September. That, after an email in which he questioned an apology issued by the university’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee for something wrongly construed by students as racial targeting. He suggested in an email that students were overly sensitive. Late last week, the school cleared him and said he would be returning to teaching duties in the Spring. Still, it just demonstrates how one misstep--even an innocent one, can get you in a heap of trouble in a hair-trigger campus environment.

REICHARD: Dicey times, but this shows what good can come from fighting back. Steve West writes about religious liberties for WORLD Digital. You can read his work at WNG.org. You can also subscribe to his free weekly newsletter on First Amendment issues, called Liberties. Steve, always good to have you on. Thank you!

WEST: Always glad to be on, Mary.

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