New Texas Law Allows Faith- Based Groups to Adhere to Biblical Family Standards

(WNS)--Texas Gov. Greg

Abbott signed legislation

June 15 that protects

faith-based foster and adoption care agencies

from lawsuits challenging their Biblically based

operational standards. Facing the threat of

ruinous lawsuits for refusing to work with gay

couples or provide abortions for children in their

care, agency directors said they would have

been forced to close their doors without the

protections.

Similar legislation in other states has met with

mixed success.

In Texas, faith-based organizations make up

about 25 percent of foster and adoption care

agencies, serving about 30,000 children in the

state’s Child Welfare Services system. Without

those agencies, the state’s already shallow pool

of prospective foster care and adoptive parents

would continue to evaporate, said state Rep.

James Frank, a Republican.

Frank, who with his wife has four biological

sons and two adopted brothers, authored key

legislation this session overhauling the

embattled child welfare system. Part of that

reform included protections that kept all

agencies “at the table,” Frank said.

Catholic Charities and Buckner Children and

Family Services, both operating in Texas, asked

lawmakers for a reprieve from anticipated

lawsuits brought by pro-abortion and LGBT-

rights advocates. Attorneys for the opposing

organizations lobbied against the bill, calling it

discriminatory and alleging gay, lesbian and

transgender parents would be shut out of the

system—an accusation none of the critics could

substantiate.

The State of Texas has never barred gays and

lesbians from fostering and adopting. As private

agencies—secular and religious—took over the

role of recruiting and training prospective

parents, some established their own policies

that excluded homosexuals. Most agencies

today, even some with religious roots, have no

such restrictions. But a biblically faithful

remnant choose to work exclusively with

married heterosexual couples and ask not to be

forced to participate in abortions.

The new law protects those agencies but

requires any prospective parent turned away for

religious reasons be referred to another agency

within the region.