In the latest episode of conservative Christianity’s persecution complex, the Biden administration is accused of discriminating against Christians by prohibiting them from fostering kids.
“Biden Takes Aim at Christian Foster Care,” one headline from the American Family Association claims. “The Biden Regime has proposed a new plan that will essentially bar Christians or anyone else who opposes LGBTQ+ ideologies from becoming foster parents, deeming them ‘unsafe.’”
The Catholic Herald adds that “Christians could be forced from the foster care system in the United States.”
According to the Washington Examiner, the recently passed “Safe and Appropriate Fostercare Placement Requirements” is part of Biden’s “war on faith and family.”
And Carol Smith writes for the Tennessee Conservative, “They’re coming for our children.”
It sounds pretty horrifying by the way these people are describing it. So now to ramp up the emotion even more, Megan Basham is promoting a new movie being released on July 4 about a true story of Christians fostering kids. And she’s drumming up fear that Christians fostering kids may never happen again.
A heartbreakingly big need
In an episode of the “Morning Wire” podcast produced by the conservative website The Daily Wire, Basham explained: “It’s a heartbreakingly big need. The most recent year for which we have data is 2022. And that year, just over 53,000 kids were adopted out of foster care. But well over twice that number had a case plan for adoption. So what that means is that they just continued in the system because they didn’t have any family that case workers believed were safe for them to return to. And no one else adopted them.”
She interviewed Joe Knittig, CEO of the Global Orphan Project and founder of the Care Portal ministry that helps churches connect with foster kids.
“Every year in the United States, even though we pour about 30 billion taxpayer dollars into child welfare, there are more than 7 million children, that’s more than 4 million families, that are referred to child protective services,” Knittig said. “So these are families at the front door of the system. And there are nearly 400,000 children that are in foster care right now. And there are more than 100,000 children in the system who are available and waiting for adoption.”
Finding common ground
In the very moving trailer for the film Sound of Hope Basham is promoting, one character says, “If we can’t wrap our arms around the most vulnerable, then what do we have?”
Another adds, “We want the ones that nobody else wants.”
Then a woman expresses: “We gotta work on this together. We your people now. And love never gives up.”
The movie is based on the true story of Bennett Chapel Missionary Baptist Church in Shelbyville, Texas. Bishop WC Martin’s wife, Donna, shared their story with Guideposts, the magazine started by the conservative Reformed pastor Norman Vincent Peale in 1945.
“In the cool breeze I seemed to hear God say: Think of all those children who don’t have what you had in a mother. I want you to give them that,” Martin wrote. Then she and the other members of their church adopted 76 kids.
“Every child is special, every child deserves to be loved,” she says. “Even if it is in a little town back in the woods, with no paved roads, no stoplight, just a cool sweet Texas breeze that blows in when you least expect it.”
Whatever differences progressive Christians may have with Basham and Knittig, or with conservatives in the line of Peale, the desire to love the most vulnerable kids is commendable and one we all seem to hold in common.
Forming an army
“An Army of Hope is assembling for kids this July Fourth in theaters everywhere,” actor Elizabeth Mitchell says at the end of the movie trailer. “Our desire is to bring together this Army of Hope this Fourth of July, one million strong, for the 100,000 kids in America who need a home.”
In the Morning Wire podcast, Basham says: “According to Barna Research, practicing Christians are more than two times more likely to adopt than the general population. And when you look at evangelicals … they’re five times more likely than other Americans to adopt. They’re also more likely to adopt older kids or kids who have special needs or other behavioral issues.”
From the sound of things, conservative Christians seem to be the heroes of the day here. As Knittig tells Basham: “When you hear about kids in need and in the foster care system and religious families stepping up to fill the need, I think many people find it surprising, even shocking that this issue has become so controversial and a matter of political debate.”
So why aren’t progressives enlisting in their Army of Hope? Are we really that heartless that we would deny kids a home due to our politics?
The leaders of the ‘Army of Hope’
Perhaps a large part of our hesitancy to join their army is due to who’s leading it.
Basham recently was given the 2024 Boniface Award for “fearless and faithful” journalism. According to the Association of Classical Christian Schools who gives out the award, Basham has “taken a stand for the Christian viewpoint” and has done so “without bitterness and in a godly and grace-filled way.”
Calling her journalism “grace-filled” is quite ironic given the fact she called me a “lunatic” and said I “cannot handle normal human interaction like a mildly off color joke without experiencing trauma and meltdowns” because I wrote that pastor Josh Howerton shouldn’t tell sexually coercive jokes from the pulpit.
A glance at her social media platforms reveals I’m not the only one she’s resorted to name calling.
The Daily Wire, which produces the Morning Wire podcast, was founded by Ben Shapiro. You may remember Shapiro from when he became so unhinged over last year’s Barbie movie that he acted like Toy Story’s violent neighbor Sid by throwing Barbies into a trash can, lighting them on fire and showing them melting to screaming sounds and then climaxed into yelling, “Negative all the Barbies! Negative all of them! … Negative infinity Barbies!”
If the movie title Sound of Hope rings a bell, it may be because it’s being made by the same people who made last year’s QAnon-supported movie Sound of Freedom. According to NPR, Sound of Freedom was promoted by Donald Trump and starred Jim Caviezel, the actor who promotes conspiracy theories that claim “an international cabal of elites is abusing and killing children to extract a substance called adrenochrome.”
As Basil Dannebohm told me in my piece about the Traditional Latin Mass Catholics, “I recall one occasion hearing that Jim Caviezel alleged that the Clintons consume the adrenal fluid of babies that are aborted and that is how they stay so powerful and so vibrant.” NPR says Caviezel described this theory on former Trump adviser Steve Bannon’s podcast.
Additionally, a crowdfunder credited on the film about Christians saving kids from trafficking was arrested on kidnapping charges. And Tim Ballard, the person the movie was based on, was fired as CEO of his anti-trafficking Operation Underground Railroad organization after former employees said they were “subjected to sexual harassment, spiritual manipulation, grooming and sexual misconduct” and after “five women said they were coerced into sexual acts after joining Mr. Ballard on his sting operations.”
So pardon the hesitancy toward joining these people’s army.
The Grand Old Persecution panic
These conservative influencers aren’t the only one’s outraged at Biden’s “Safe and Appropriate Fostercare Placement Requirements,” however. Republican politicians are joining their persecution panic as well.
James Lankford
Republican Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma, a Southern Baptist pastor, said he’s been hearing from concerned citizens because “the ACF’s recent rule on foster care considers situations where a child has been removed from their home, the statement was ‘due in part or in whole to familial conflict about their sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression or sex characteristics.’”
“I know it’s a touchy issue on this,” Lankford admitted. “But we have to figure out how to get as many people as we can possibly to be able to help in the foster system. And what I don’t want to have is a message being sent to faith based organizations or families that believe in a traditional marriage situation that you’re no longer welcome to participate.”
Additionally, a group of 19 state attorneys general released a letter in November 2023 anticipating the new requirements.
“This proposed rule seeks to accomplish indirectly what the Supreme Court found unconstitutional just two years ago: remove faith-based providers from the foster care system if they will not conform their religious beliefs on sexual orientation and gender identity,” they wrote.
Because the rule requires foster parents of LGBTQ kids to use their child’s preferred pronouns, the GOP attorneys general claimed, “The proposed rule also unconstitutionally forces speech on foster providers.”
Because the rule allows foster parents to decline being designated as a “safe and appropriate placement for LGBTQ children,” the attorneys general argued the rule “substantially burdens religious exercise” by “forcing individuals and organizations of faith to limit their work in the foster care system.”
And because the rule prohibits foster parents from such actions as “efforts to degrade, disparage or change the child’s sexual orientation or gender identity, disclosing the child’s LGBTQ identity in ways that cause harm or risk the privacy of the child, or other activities that stigmatize a child’s LGBTQ identity,” the attorneys general argue the rule “directly endangers the religious freedom of individuals and organizations of faith … when they have done no more than live and profess their beliefs.”
Conservatives creating the exact harm they claim to prevent
Are any of these people listening to themselves? They are defending their freedom to degrade, disparage and change children’s sexual orientation. They’re admitting that living and professing their beliefs may mean causing harm or risking their child’s privacy.
“They are defending their freedom to degrade, disparage and change children’s sexual orientation.”
What kind of home would that be to live in?
The harsh reality for conservatives like Basham and friends is that their theology and politics are creating the very harm they say they want to prevent.
Knittig says, “You would have a monumental ocean of traumatized children mounting every year if you were to cut off that kind of care.” But it doesn’t seem to dawn on him that degrading and disparaging the kids they’d be caring for might traumatize the kids.
Basham says Josh and Rebekah Weigel, creators of Sound of Hope, told her, “Policies like this new HHS rule does stand to hurt suffering kids the most.” But it doesn’t seem to dawn on them how risking a child’s privacy and stigmatizing their identity might cause suffering.
Knittig reminds us: “The No. 1 driver is not abuse. It is neglect. And it’s usually poverty related neglect.”
So why do these conservative influencers so consistently argue against dealing with the underlying causes of intergenerational poverty?
In one scene from the Sound of Hope trailer, they mention the kids who are neglected and then say about those who are abused, “The other 30% are put through hell.”
And yet, if these conservative Christians foster LGBTQ kids and share their nonaffirming theology, they’ll be abusing them by threatening them with hell if the kids don’t submit.
These people are claiming to be an Army of Hope. But hope for whom? Perhaps for themselves by advancing their agenda. But certainly not for LGBTQ kids.
A custom, consent-based care plan
According to the rule itself, federal law requires that states “ensure that each child in foster care receives ‘safe and proper’ care and has a case plan that addresses the specific needs of the child while in foster care to support their health and well-being.”
So rather than taking a one-size-fits-all approach to caring for every child, the law allows for each child to have a care plan specific to them. Who could possibly have a problem with that?
The rule “also requires that for children ages 14 and over, agencies must consult with them about their case plans.”
You would think this would be common sense. But conservative Christianity tends not to value or emphasize consent that much.
Imagine if you are a teenager who is being placed in the home of a conservative Bill Gothard follower as seen in the Shiny Happy People documentary. What if you’re being placed in a home that believes Voddie Baucham‘s theology, which says parents are to “have an all-day session where you just wear them out” with spankings, and that daughters are to serve their fathers for life until they get married to serve their husbands?
Putting any kids, and especially LGBTQ kids, in that environment would apparently be Basham’s dreamworld. She quoted Baucham last week on social media, saying, “The left attacks the patriarchy to attack the ultimate Patriarch, God.”
Providing an affirming environment brings stability and safety
The rule notes that kids who identify as LGBTQ make up a much larger percentage of the child welfare system than kids who identify as LGBTQ in the general public.
The reason is that LGBTQ youth “face higher rates of parental physical abuse and are more likely to run away from home or be kicked out, often because of conflict over their sexual orientation or gender identity. These experiences place LGBTQ youth at greater risk of entering foster care and mean that many LGBTQ youth enter foster care with complex needs and trauma related to the discrimination and stigma they have experienced because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.”
Since many of them are running away from families who degrade and disparage them based on their identity, doesn’t it make sense to place them in a foster home that won’t continue to traumatize them in that way? Wouldn’t it bring more stability and safety to the child to let them be in a space where they can breathe without being condemned?
“This is not a prohibition against conservative Christians fostering kids.”
This is not a prohibition against conservative Christians fostering kids. It’s simply asking every prospective parent if they’re willing to provide a safe space for LGBTQ kids. If they’re unwilling to do so, then they’re more than welcome to decline being designated as a “safe and appropriate placement for LGBTQ children.” And then they can foster kids who they are able to offer a safe and appropriate placement for.
If conservative Christians are unwilling to provide a safe and appropriate placement based on their religious doctrine, shouldn’t they be willing to admit that for the benefit of the child based on their love of neighbor?
What matters more — your religious liberty or your love of neighbor?
The rule includes more than 21,000 words of awareness into the unique challenges LGBTQ kids face. It covers far too many insights than can be summarized in this piece. But what you get out of the document depends on how you read it.
If you read the document as Basham and the ironically named Army of Hope do through the lens of defending your religious liberty to degrade and disparage LGBTQ kids, then you’ll read with a hardened heart that leads you to grasp at conspiracy theories and lies while prioritizing yourself over the kids you claim to care about.
But if you read it through the lens of loving your neighbor as yourself, you might find yourself in the surprising position of being moved by a legal document toward an empathy that provides space for kids to heal.
Then again, if you’re Basham, empathy isn’t exactly high on your priority list.
Her social media profile is filled with such words as “toxic empathy,” “weaponized empathy,” “suicidal empathy,” “untethered empathy,” “empathy-based heresy,” and promotions of Christian nationalist Joe Rigney’s claim that empathetic people are “the most vile and mean-spirited.”
Those who support the Safe and Appropriate Fostercare Placement Requirements are those who empathize with LGBTQ kids enough to seek their consent in providing a customized care plan for them that is safe in contrast to where they came from.
But in the upside down world of conservative Christianity, that’s considered toxic, suicidal, untethered and heretical, while spreading lies and conspiracies amidst name-calling will win you awards for “grace-filled” journalism.
In this empire, the ones with the persecution complex are the ones fighting for the right to persecute. In the name of helping kids, it’s the most insular, narcissistic, self-serving agenda one could imagine.
Rick Pidcock
Rick Pidcock is a 2004 graduate of Bob Jones University, with a bachelor of arts degree in Bible. He’s a freelance writer based in South Carolina and a former Clemons Fellow with BNG. He completed a master of arts degree in worship from Northern Seminary. He is a stay-at-home father of five children and produces music under the artist name Provoke Wonder. Follow his blog at www.rickpidcock.com.
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