Kentucky should protect foster kids’ religious freedom
Bevin administration is prolonging an already long legal fight, using resources that could go into improving children’s services
EDITORIAL
JULY 25, 2016 6:53 PM
The Bevin administration is re-embroiling the state in a court fight that was triggered 18 years ago when Kentucky Baptist Homes for Children fired an employee because she posed with her lesbian partner in a photo exhibit at the state fair.
The employee’s discrimination complaint was dismissed early on. But the state, the Baptist-supported agency that was renamed Sunrise Children’s Services and three Kentucky taxpayer plaintiffs have been arguing ever since in federal court about how to safeguard children in taxpayer-supported foster care from religious coercion and proselytizing.
Without admitting or alleging any wrongdoing, the state in 2014 agreed to guidelines which most people will consider sensible and humane.
As summarized by the 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, the terms agreed to by the state “require providers to inform a child and the child’s parents of a foster home’s religious affiliation, to provide children with opportunities to go to the church of their choice, and to provide non-religious alternatives to religious activities. Providers must also agree not to discriminate against children on the basis of religion, coerce children to engage in religious activity or attempt to convert children to a new religion. Further, when children leave their care, providers must give them an exit survey that asks, among other things, whether the provider tried to convert the child to a new religion.”
http://www.kentucky.com/opinion/editorials/article91798782.html#storylink=cpy
