Children are hurt when agencies use religious litmus tests to provide foster care
When my family and I reached out to a large foster care agency in South Carolina, helping vulnerable children in need of safe, loving homes was our top priority.
Whether those children shared our Catholic faith was never a consideration.
We assumed any child welfare agency would likewise prioritize the best interests of children, so we were shocked and dismayed to learn that some government-funded agencies deny kids a chance at a forever home because of the religious beliefs of prospective parents.
Even more alarming is that some states and even the federal government don’t merely allow but actively encourage this religious discrimination — and that the U.S. Supreme Court could soon allow foster care agencies nationwide to use these religious litmus tests.
Stable homes are key
My father grew up in foster care and the system failed him, and that experience led my parents to open our home to dozens of children in foster care when I was growing up. I saw firsthand how much a stable and loving home could help children who had suffered enough.
My husband and I wanted to build on this family legacy by mentoring and hopefully someday fostering children — giving them happy memories and a caring family while also instilling the value of family and service in my own three children.
Seeking a good fit
Some of my children have special needs, so we looked first for mentoring opportunities that would allow our entire family to volunteer, develop relationships and ensure a good fit for everyone involved.
I was thrilled to learn of a state program run through Miracle Hill Ministries, one of the largest state contractors providing foster care and other services for South Carolina. Over several weeks of communication with Miracle Hill, I told them about my excitement about its mentorship program.
I shared how much my family looked forward to taking children on trips to the children’s museum, playing soccer and browsing through the local bookstore.
Rejected because of faith
Miracle Hill indicated my family would be “perfect” to mentor children — until, that is, it asked me one final question: What church did I attend?
When I responded with the name of my parish, the agency flatly rejected us because we are Catholic. It told me they only work with families who are evangelical Protestants; not Catholics, Jews or people of other faiths.
All of their applicants must sign an evangelical Protestant statement of faith. It is a statement that does not reflect my personal religious beliefs, and I therefore cannot sign without lying and denying my faith.
Religious litmus tests
I had never considered myself a religious minority until that moment.
It was astonishing and demoralizing to hear that we are not good enough to help children in need because we aren’t “the right kind” of Christians. And what’s even worse is knowing that the government has signed off on this religious discrimination.
President Donald Trump’s administration and some states, such as South Carolina, are officially allowing taxpayer-funded foster care agencies to use religious litmus tests to reject qualified foster parents.
Kids deserve more
Being turned away because we are Catholic was devastating, but at the end of the day my kids still have parents. Children in foster care need and deserve to have someone looking out for them, and the government and some of these agencies are taking that opportunity away.
These kids all deserve to have moms at their football games and Sunday night dinners with family, yet many of these children are still in institutions. It isn’t right, it isn’t fair and it isn’t necessary.
Fighting discrimination
Since Americans United for Separation of Church and State helped me file a lawsuit challenging this discrimination, I’ve learned that it’s not just would-be foster parents of the “wrong” religion who are turned away.
LGBTQ couples, single parents and other qualified families who don’t behave in line with an agency’s religious tenets are being rejected by agencies that provide foster care on the government’s behalf.
This week the U.S. Supreme Court will hear a similar case called Fulton v. Philadelphia involving a government-funded agency that uses a religious litmus test to screen foster parents.
Unlike in my case, however, in this case the government tried to do the right thing: the city of Philadelphia stopped contracting with an agency that uses its own religious preferences to discriminate against prospective parents.
I’m speaking out about what happened to my family because I hope the Supreme Court will agree that Philadelphia was right to put the best interests of children first.
The court should make clear that the nearly half-million kids in foster care across this country must not be denied loving homes because qualified parents aren’t “the right kind” of Christian.
Aimee Maddonna lives in Simpsonville. She is the plaintiff in the federal lawsuit Maddonna v. U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, which was filed last year by Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
This story was originally published November 4, 2020 at 10:34 AM.