A Jewish couple denied foster and adoption training by a state-funded Christian organization urged a Tennessee court to rule their religious rights were violated by a law that funnels taxpayer funds to faith-based child placement providers.
Attorneys for Elizabeth and Gabriel Rutan-Ram appeared in a Nashville courtroom Aug. 27 arguing for summary judgment in a 2022 lawsuit against the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services, which contracts with faith-based adoption groups that reject applicants with differing religious beliefs.
The Knoxville couple applied to the Holston United Methodist Home for Children in 2021 for the state-mandated training and home certification to adopt a child with a disability from Florida. Holston was the only agency in the region that provided certification for out-of-state adoptions.
Holston filed a federal lawsuit against the Biden administration in 2022 to retain its right to religiously discriminate despite receiving federal funds. That case was eventually dismissed.
“Holston told the Rutan-Rams that it would not serve them because they are Jewish.”
“But on the day that the Rutan-Rams were scheduled to begin Holston’s foster-parent-training class, Holston told the Rutan-Rams that it would not serve them because they are Jewish,” according to the complaint in Rutan-Ram v. Tennessee Department of Children’s Services. “Holston explained that it ‘only provide(s) adoption services to prospective adoptive families that share our (Christian) belief system.’”
The current lawsuit was filed to block a 2020 Tennessee law authorizing child-placing agencies to deny services based on religious belief.
The Chancery Court dismissed the lawsuit in June 2022 but was overruled by the Court of Appeals of Tennessee in August 2023.
In its February motion for summary judgment filed on behalf of the Rutan-Rams and other plaintiffs added to the suit, Americans United for Separation of Church and State praised the couple for not giving up their legal case and for becoming certified directly by the state in the meantime.
“The Rutan-Rams, although stung by this rejection, regrouped and became a foster‑care family for the department itself, fostering nearly 40 children over the next four years. They were finally able to adopt one of their long‑term foster children in March 2025, over four years after their first attempt to adopt.”
The court should put an end to the cruelty of Tennessee’s unconstitutional law allowing Christian groups to discriminate against religious minorities, AU contends.
“We are asking the court to help end this four-year long legal nightmare that upended our lives and prevented us from adopting a child in need,” the Rutan-Rams said in a statement issued by Americans United. “Our tax dollars should not be financing a system that actively discriminates against anyone who can’t pass a religious test and delays vulnerable children from finding loving homes. State-sanctioned religious discrimination should have no place in Tennessee.”
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It’s still ‘Christians only’ at this Tennessee Methodist adoption agency