Oregon Uses Law to Disallow Anti-Trans Christians from Adopting

By Douglas V. Gibbs
Author, Speaker, Instructor, Radio Host

Refuse to deny your Christian beliefs and you will lose your ability to adopt a child in the State of Oregon.  The religion of killing God and His Creation has become so powerful among the members of the political left that the adoption industry bureaucrats of Oregon refused to allow a Christian mother of five to adopt two children after she said her religion would not let her take a young minor to receive cross-hormone injections.  Since most Americans, according to a poll around 78% of Americans, do not agree with the horrific policies of the left that includes blocking a child's natural development with hormone blockers, and chopping up children with irreversible sex-change surgeries, the Oregon policy disallows more than three-quarters of Americans from adopting children in the Pacific Northwest state.  There are already waiting lists for younger children to be adopted, as it is.  As for requiring adoptive parents to facilitate transgender procedures acts against their religious beliefs, that is a form of religious discrimination at the very least.

I remember during the 2016 Democratic National Convention a man named Khizr Khan, father of a soldier killed in Iraq, and an immigrant from Pakistan, waving a blue pocket Constitution during his speech that the leftwing media swooned over.  He criticized Trump over his planned policy to restrict immigration from countries with a proven history of terrorism and were sponsors of terrorism (at the time the list was all Muslim countries).  At the convention, Khan told Muslim immigrants and all immigrants to take the upcoming election seriously.

"Let me ask you, have you even read the United States Constitution? I will gladly lend you my copy," Khan said, pulling a democrat-blue pocket constitution out of his jacket. "In this document, look for the words 'liberty' and 'equal protection of law.' "  He then went on to claim that it was illegal to limit who immigrates or travels into the country based on religion, for it violates the clause that disallows "religious tests."

Never mind that the Constitution says there will be no religious tests for holding office, of which the Democrats violate constantly (especially during judicial confirmation hearings).  The left had no problem shutting down churches during the scamdemic, too.  As for the religious freedom clause in the First Amendment disallowing Congress from making any laws that prohibits the free exercise of religion, that's regarding within the United States.  The whole argument also considers the thought that Islam is a religion, rather than a political movement that calls itself a religion.  

My point is that the left constantly does the exact opposite than what is proper when it comes to religion, rights, and morality.  They embrace religions that stand behind radical terrorism, calls America the Great Satan, and demands the annihilation of Israel and the Jewish People.  They embrace their immoral radical religion of anti-biology and anti-Christianity, and then they seek to discriminate against Christians.  They rank rights, they define rights, and they tell you what your rights are; arrogant considering our rights are God-given.  Why?  Because in the end, that is what this is all about.  Every single leftist policy and debate point stands against Christianity and against God's Creation.  Their god is government and their leftist ideology.  They hate Christianity because Christians place God above government.  They reject Christians who seek to share the good news of Christ and to lead people to the value system and teachings of Jesus Christ.  The left seeks to destroy, eliminate, and attack anyone who dares to stand against them, and Christianity fits that bill.  Oregon's adoption policies are yet another example of the liberal progressive communist left's glaring anti-Christian position.

As a result of the Oregon prohibition against pro-biology parents from adopting children, Jessica Bates has sued five Oregon state employees for adoption guidelines that effectively say, “Conservative Christians need not apply,” according to her legal brief.

Oregon state law states: all would-be adoptive parents must “respect, accept and support” the adoptee’s professed “sexual orientation, gender identity, [and] gender expression.” 

The State of Oregon also mandates that prospective parents attend State-produced classes which cover Oregon’s adoption application process, and according to Jessica Bates the class included that prospective parents must use a child’s preferred pronouns, present same-sex relationships in a positive light, and take children who identify as LGBT to transgender procedures.

Oregon’s Department of Human Services has basically decided, and pushes, a political ideological position over the needs of children, and are willing to discriminate against anyone who dares disagree with their misguided and evil demands.  

According to the Daily Signal, Bates, whose late husband perished in a car accident in 2017, is a mom of five children between the ages of 10 and 17. She feels inspired to adopt children based on the Bible’s commandment “to visit orphans and widows in their affliction” (James 1:27); she also volunteers twice a week at a pro-life pregnancy resource center. She would like to adopt two siblings who are younger than 9 years old.

When she first made her desires known to the state foster care system, officials at Oregon’s Department of Human Services assisted her in the application process. But then she entered state-mandated instructions for all those seeking to care for children in the foster care system.

When Bates enrolled in the Resource and Adoptive Family program, she says a RAFT instructor told her good parenting required “allowing a child to dress however they want and taking them to a Pride parade.”

“Respecting [a child’s] gender identity and expression is very important,” a RAFT handout said. Prospective adoptees must “always ask someone for their pronouns,” because there “are an infinite number of pronouns as new ones emerge in our language.”

Parents should avoid “forcing youth to attend activities (including religious activities … ) that are … unsupportive of people with diverse SOGIE [sexual orientation, gender identity, and expression],” it said. Bates and other participants must instead “[p]rovide access to a variety of books, movies, and materials, including those that positively represent same-gender relationships.”

“Display rainbow flags and other messages and images,” demands another handout described in Alliance Defending Freedom’s legal brief.

Good parenting?  Good parenting is not allowing a child to do whatever they want.  In fact, that's the opposite of good parenting.  As the adult we, armed with our experiences of life and the Word of God, are supposed to guide children away from what can be destructive for them, not celebrate it and champion it and do whatever the child, and the crazy people running these bureaucracies, desire.

Bates expressed concern that Oregon state guidelines could prevent her from taking all her children to a church that upholds traditional beliefs on gender or teaching them Bible lessons that may contain verses that contradict “state orthodoxy.”

“It’s telling that Oregon would prefer to keep over 5,000 children in foster care every day than certify an otherwise well-qualified home that not only desires to serve such children but is open to sibling groups and older children,” said González, especially as homes willing to adopt older children and keep siblings together are “usually in short supply and high demand.”

Bates made clear that she would show love to any child and tolerance toward children who identify as LGBT, but she couldn’t participate in interventions that permanently alter their bodies—a concern she thought would affect very few children in the state system.

“I don’t know how many children there are out there under the age of 9 who fall into this category (and to me it’s kind of crazy that society is wanting to get kids thinking about this stuff at such young ages; I think we should let them keep their innocence), so this may not even be an issue,” Bates emailed Cecilia Garcia, the worker assigned to guide her application, on Aug. 9.

“I have no problem loving them and accepting them as they are, but I would not encourage them in this behavior,” she added. “I believe God gives us our gender/sex, and it’s not something we get to choose.”

Bates was informed her application was denied due to her "refusal to affirm a child’s hypothetical decision to identify as a member of the opposite sex."  When asked by state workers regarding giving cross-sex hormone shots to children under 9, Bates responded that administering medically unnecessary and experimental shots to a child at such a tender age would amount to child abuse.

“Because I wouldn’t take a child for cross-sex hormone injections, I was basically told that I’m ineligible to adopt in the state of Oregon,” Bates said. State officials told Bates she did not “meet the adoption home standards” due to her belief in biological sex, her attorney said.

“Oregon’s policy amounts to an ideological litmus test,” said Jonathan Scruggs of Alliance Defending Freedom, which represents Bates in the court case Bates v. Pakseresht. “People who hold secular or ‘progressive’ views on sexual orientation and gender identity are eligible to participate in child welfare programs, while people of faith with religiously informed views are disqualified because they don’t agree with the state’s orthodoxy.”

The policy potentially targets all people who dares to disagree with the radical gender ideology that has infested our system, not just Christians.  That said, in our country, Christians represent the largest block of people who will be negatively affected by the left's anti-biology policies.  Excluding Christians from adopting children because of their faith and science-based views contradicts the left's past views, as well, if you want to get technical.  In the past the pro-homosexual crowd barked about private Christian adoption centers refusing to allow same-sex couples from adopting children.  The difference here is glaring.  In the case of homosexuals trying to adopt, the policy was that of a private center.  The policy that Jessica Bates is fighting exists across the board because it is the policy of a public entity, the Oregon Department of Human Services.  Any freedom to disagree is simply unlawful.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary