Earlier this year, Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) and several co-sponsors introduced the Child Welfare Provider Inclusion Act that would prohibit federal, state, and local agencies from discriminating against providers who receive federal funds from adoption assistance programs.
Herbie Newell of LifeLine Children's Services says the legislation is necessary because LGBT-allied politicians keep targeting faith-based providers that operate on the fundamental biblical principle that children should be raised by a mother and father in a loving home.
“What's happening is their funding is being threatened, their licensing is being threatened, and the renewal of their contracts is being threatened,” Newell points out, “if they don't compromise their biblical or faith standard.”
In past AFN stories, those faith-based groups have witnessed the darkening culture turn against them in the name of “tolerance,” even after finding homes for thousands of children over several decades of work. That means it is the children who suffer to advance a wicked political agenda.
“I’m deeply saddened to see some government officials punish foster services for their sincere religious beliefs,” bill co-sponsor Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said regarding the legislation. “That discrimination comes directly at the expense of boys and girls who are waiting for loving, healthy homes.”
“In South Carolina and across the country,” Sen. Scott said in a statement, “faith-based foster care providers support the 400,000 children in our foster care system who—through no fault of their own—have nowhere else to go.
“At a time when religious freedoms are under assault,” he continued, “the Child Welfare Provider Inclusion Act is a necessary protection for those who are living according to their convictions.”
According to Newell, the entire child welfare system in the U.S. relies heavily on the charity and hard work of people of faith who put the needs of children first.
“There are statistics that show that the majority of those who are participating in child welfare,” he tells American Family News, “are those with some type of strongly held religious or faith belief.”
That is why, he adds, the legislation introduced by Sen. Scott and others needs to become a federal law.
