Family Reportedly Refused Foster Care, Adoption Over Biblical Views
A Massachusetts couple is accusing the state of discriminating against their faith and precluding them from participating in the foster care and adoption system due to their biblical beliefs. Mike and Kitty Burke are reportedly suing Massachusetts, with Will Haun, senior counsel for Becket and an attorney working on their case, telling CBN’s Faithwire how the husband and wife found themselves in the midst of their current legal battle.
“They experienced the heartbreak of infertility, and afterwards they decided to become foster parents with the hope of eventually adopting children,” Haun said. “They applied through Massachusetts. They went through 30 hours of training, lengthy interviews, home assessments, their overall family life was scrutinized and reviewed.” But the lawyer said the couple was eventually denied on the basis of their worldview.
“Despite acknowledging many strengths with them and that they were a lovely couple who really seemed to understand foster and adoption care, ultimately they were denied for one reason,” Haun continued. “As the reviewer put it, ‘Their faith is not supportive and neither are they,’ referring to whether or not they would, in Massachusetts’ words, support and affirm a child’s sexual orientation or gender identity.”
Haun said it was both unnecessary and unconstitutional to come to such a conclusion, calling the process of asking questions and inquiring about these issues “highly discretionary and selective.” The state’s Department of Children and Families file on the family reportedly had statements saying the Burkes’ faith wouldn’t be supportive and that their regular church attendance was an issue of concern.
But Haun affirmed his belief the First Amendment protects the Burkes and others from the government coming in and choosing which religious beliefs it likes and which it doesn’t. Watch him explain the case and his efforts to right these alleged wrongs.
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