Interfaith Coalition for Children’s Rights

Since 1995, Children’s Rights has been advocating for children in broken child welfare, juvenile justice, education, and healthcare systems. We have won landmark legal victories across the United States that hold governments accountable for keeping kids safe and healthy.

THE PROBLEM

We have been increasingly concerned about state and federal legislation that expressly allows taxpayer-funded child welfare agencies to discriminate, based on their religious beliefs, against potential foster or adoptive parents. Some of the bills are so broad as to permit discrimination against children. Using religion as justification, these laws deprive the most vulnerable children among us of the chance to be welcomed into the homes of safe and loving families.

This is particularly harmful because, according to 2018 research by the Williams Institute, one in five same-sex couples (21.4 percent) are raising adopted children compared to just 3 percent of different-sex couples, and 2.9 percent of same-sex couples have foster children compared to 0.4 percent of different-sex couples.

Now, the Trump administration has rescinded an Obama-era equal rights regulation in order to nationalize this discrimination. This has the potential to do grave harm to the children we serve.

WHAT WE ARE DOING

One of the best ways to counter state legislation and the administration’s efforts is to bring faith leaders together on behalf of children in child welfare systems. That’s why we launched the Interfaith Coalition for Children’s Rights in May 2019. We hope that you will join us in fighting back against state and federal legislation and policy that use religious freedom to enshrine a “license to discriminate.”

BACKGROUND

Although state legislation and the administration’s rule-making are directed at the LGBTQ community, as in Philadelphia and Michigan, the language permits discrimination against anyone who does not meet the religious litmus test of child welfare service providers. 

For example, a South Carolina provider agency refused to work with a Catholic family, a Jewish couple, and a Jewish woman simply because of their faith. Around the time this information became public, the State sought and was granted a waiver from a federal nondiscrimination regulation, the very one the White House has just rescinded, to enable agencies to continue to turn away otherwise qualified prospective foster and adoptive parents. Children’s Rights respects and values the role that faith-based agencies play in providing both placement and services for children in foster care across the country. Our concern is with state-sanctioned discrimination of any kind.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Stay informed—for updates, join the Children’s Rights email list and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

INTERFAITH COALITION FOR CHILDREN’S RIGHTS

As we move forward in our advocacy, we will call on the Interfaith Coalition for Children’s Rights to submit public comments, sign letters, participate in amicus briefs, and mobilize grassroots action. Working together, we can make a real difference. For example, in March 2019, members of Georgia’s faith community showed up in force and successfully blocked a child welfare discrimination bill; in April 2019, local advocacy and business groups did the same thing in Tennessee. In Philadelphia, a federal appeals court upheld a lower court ruling requiring foster care agencies to adhere to nondiscrimination policies.

Founding members of our Interfaith Coalition include the Hon. Ruth Messinger, Social Justice Activist and Consultant; Union Theological Seminary—Rev. Dr. Serene Jones, President, Rev. Frederick A. Davie, Executive Vice President, Rev. Dr. Kelly Brown Douglas, Dean, Episcopal Divinity School at Union, and Miguel Escobar, Director of Anglican Studies, Episcopal Divinity School at Union; Rabbi David Sandmel, Director of Interreligious Engagement, ADL (Anti-Defamation League); Rabbi Steve Gutow, Visiting Scholar, The Wagner School, New York University.

GET INVOLVED

Please send an email to Daniele Gerard at dgerard@childrensrights.org with any questions you may have, and to let us know we can count on your faith organization to become a member of the Interfaith Coalition for Children’s Rights.

QUICK LINKS

• Op-Ed in Sojourners by Rev. Dr. Serene Jones and Sandy Santana: Reject Discrimination and Put Children First (October 17, 2019)
• Chronicle of Social Change: Interfaith Coalition Formed to Oppose Discrimination by Religious Child Welfare Providers (July 2, 2019)
• Op-Ed in The Forward by Ruth Messinger and Sandy Santana: The Trump Administration’s Discriminatory Policies Are Harming The Most Vulnerable Children (June 19, 2019)
• Press Release: Children’s Rights, Faith Leaders Launch Interfaith Coalition to Fight Foster Care and Adoption Discrimination
• Blog: Announcing the Interfaith Coalition for Children’s Rights

To follow additional ongoing media coverage, please visit our LGBTQ Project page.