States Exclude Christian Parents From Foster Care

California law requires foster parents to affirm a child’s “sexual orientation” or “gender identity.” The mandate is being used to exclude Christians with biblical views about sexuality and relationships from the state’s foster care system.

Authored by gay-identified state Senator Scott Weiner and signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom in September 2023, Senate Bill 407 is now being enforced with new guidance from the California Department of Social Services (CDSS).

Other states, including Vermont, Oregon, Washington and Massachusetts, also exclude parents from foster care if they believe in God’s male-female design for humanity.

This, despite the fact that “there are about 368,000 kids in foster care in the United States,” with “around 68,000 children moving in and out of foster homes annually” in California.

Focus on the Family’s Director for Foster Care and Adoption, Dr. Sharen Ford, decried the exclusion of Christians from caring for children in need. A nationally recognized child welfare consultant, she told the Daily Citizen:

I am gravely concerned about SB 407 as it is a way of forcing Christians to choose to bow to Ceasar by checking their faith at social services’ door or stop caring for children. Christian families have been honoring God’s call to open their hearts and homes to serve “the lonely” (Ps. 68:6, NIV).

In this new era of you must do it my way, government is throwing down the gauntlet to Christian families telling them to choose. Each family facing these potential changes will need to carefully and prayerfully ask the Lord to order their steps.

The new guidelines from CDSS state:

A Resource Family (RF) applicant and approved RF must demonstrate an ability and willingness to meet the needs of a child or a non-minor dependent (NMD) inclusive of their sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression.

CDSS explains how the legislation changed the requirements for foster care families:

The bill also requires that [Resource Family Approval] pre- and post-approval training curriculum provide a caregiver with the knowledge, skills, and ability to parent any child or NMD in foster care inclusive of their … sexual orientation [or] gender identity.”

California Family Council (CFC) reported that foster care parents are already being removed from the system in California. The Focus on the Family-allied organization received a phone call “from a foster father who, along with his wife, had provided temporary care to multiple young children over several years.”

The family policy counsel, which works for life, marriage and family in the Golden State, continued:

Despite their history of offering loving homes, their social worker denied the renewal of their foster care license because they could not commit to affirming any identity a child might choose. This was a marked departure from previous practices, where their beliefs were accommodated, and they were not assigned LGBTQ-identified children.

CFC Vice President Greg Burt stated:

Their social worker told them that under SB 407, the promise of affirmation is now a requirement for fostering any child, regardless of age.

The California Legislature also passed a measure in 2019 which requires foster care parents and workers to refer to children “by the child’s preferred name and gender pronouns.”

CFC warns such laws endanger all parents. The organization quoted Chief Counsel for the Pacific Justice Institute Kevin Snyder, who stated:

California parents may think, “This doesn’t concern me — I’m not a foster parent.” In fact, it does concern you.

There is now a very small step for the state to deem any parent as unfit to raise their own children if the family holds a view that contradicts the state’s ideology on gender and sexual orientation. This could result in a visit by Child Protective Services with tragic consequences for the home.

Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) said Oregon also keeps Christians out of the system, as the state denied an adoption application from Jessica Bates, a widowed mother of five who wanted “to open her home to children in need.”

ADF explained:

But sadly, when Jessica applied to become certified to adopt, Oregon denied her application because Oregon requires every family to first adopt the state’s view of human identity and sexuality.

This left her with two options: abandon her beliefs or give up the possibility of adopting a child. That’s something Jessica couldn’t do – and shouldn’t have to.

ADF filed a lawsuit on her behalf against Oregon’s Department of Human Services. After losing in a lower court, she appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, where she awaits a ruling.

The legal aid organization has a similar case in Vermont, where Pastor Brian and Katy Wuoti and Pastor Bryan and Rebecca Gantt had their foster care licenses revoked “after the couples expressed their religiously inspired and widely held belief that girls cannot become boys or vice versa.”

The Wuoti’s adopted two brothers from foster care, while the Gants “became foster parents in 2016 and focused on caring for children born with drug dependencies or with fetal alcohol syndrome,” as ADF reported, adding, “The Gantts have since adopted three children.”

Dr. Ford helps raise awareness of the need for adoptive families to provide loving homes for children in the foster care system through Focus’ Wait No More program. She explained the cost to children as parents are forced to choose between following God or bowing to the state:

Families that draw the line in the sand may stop serving as foster parents. Then what will happen to these children? Who will share life with them? Who will help shape them and prepare them for the future? Who will help them heal? Who will train them up so they can become productive citizens? How will they know what it means to be in a family?

For these reasons and so many more, Christians will cry out to the Lord as Rachel did, “A voice heard in Ramah, mourning and great weeping, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more” (Jer. 31:15, NIV).

Ford called for citizens to “not sit back and be quiet on this matter,” stating:

There’s currently a shortage of family foster homes across the nation. This policy will further exacerbate this situation.

Youth are sleeping in social services offices and supervised by casework professionals. Others are staying in hotels with rotating staff and eating takeout food. In some jurisdictions, youth are placed in juvenile detention facilities, having committed no crimes, for the sheer lack of homes for kids to be placed in.

Is this what the state wants?

The Daily Citizen is grateful for Christian organizations like Alliance Defending Freedom and California Family Council that are fighting back against these egregious, damaging policies that violate constitutional freedoms and place children at risk.

At Focus on the Family, we strongly believe that government efforts to force foster parents to affirm gender ideology or support a child’s sexual identity confusion are unconstitutional in that they violate the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause.

Therefore, we recommend Christians consider utilizing every available legal avenue to defend their right to serve as foster parents in accordance with their faith. Focus on the Family cannot and does not give legal advice. However, we can encourage you to prayerfully consider Christian legal aid organizations for help.

Related articles and resources:

Wait No More is Focus on the Family’s foster and adoption ministry, a whole-family approach that provides free resources for foster care and adoptive families – and for churches and allies who walk alongside them. Through Wait No More’s Suitcase Bundle ministry, children in foster care are provided their own suitcase – for their belongings – as well as a teddy bear, handwritten letter and age-appropriate Bible. The suitcase bundle is a simple way to offer dignity, comfort and hope to children in scary, lonely situations.

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