Faith leaders voice their support for adoption bill

Several Oklahoma faith leaders are supporting legislation that would exempt faithbased adoption and foster care agencies from participating in child placements that violate their religious beliefs, such as their stance against same-sex marriage.

Those voicing their approval of Senate Bill 1140 through letters to state lawmakers include leaders from the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma, the state’s top Roman Catholic clergy, the executive director of Catholic Charities of Oklahoma City and the executive director of Deaconess Pregnancy and Adoption Services.

In their letters, Catholic and Baptist leaders expressed concerns that faith-based adoption programs in Oklahoma might face the type of challenges that have caused the demise of similar programs in other states.

According to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, leaders with Catholic Charities agencies in Boston, as well as San Francisco and other cities, have been forced to end their adoption programs because the organizations refused to place children with anyone other than heterosexual married couples.

Oklahoma faith leaders advocating for SB 1140 said it is proactive and similar to legislation that has been passed in other states like Texas, Virginia and South Dakota. The clergy said the bill authored by Sen. Greg Treat, R-Oklahoma City, would guarantee the religious liberty of faith-based adoption programs.

“In states like Massachusetts, Illinois, California and the District of Columbia, faithbased agencies have been forced to close their doors after new regulations were promulgated that would have mandated changes to their adoption criteria in violation of their religious principles,” the Most Rev. Paul S. Coakley and the Most Rev. David Konderla said in their letter to lawmakers. Coakley is archbishop of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, while Konderla is the bishop of the Tulsa Diocese.

“We have been alarmed and outraged to learn of threats to the religious liberty and moral convictions of faith-based agencies in other parts of the country, such as Massachusetts,” the Rev. Anthony Jordan, executive director-treasurer of the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma, and the Rev. Hance Dilbeck, the convention’s executive director-treasurer elect, wrote to lawmakers.

The Baptist leaders said they expected the bill would draw opposition from groups claiming it would hinder same-sex couples or others from adopting. But they said same-sex couples may adopt in all 50 states and the proposed legislation would simply keep the government from compelling faith-based programs from acting “against their consciences and statements of faith.”

In his letter, Patrick Raglow, executive director of Catholic Charities of Oklahoma City, said his agency has assisted with a relatively small amount of adoptions — on average 4.4 adoptions per year — but the adoption program is an important one that serves that community-at-large.

Like the Baptist leaders, he said his organization had identified several agencies in the state willing to serve and currently serving “nontraditional” families seeking adoption, thus such families would not be harmed by the proposed legislation.

Meanwhile, Troy Stevenson, executive director of the LGBTQ advocacy group Freedom Oklahoma, said he strongly disagreed with the faith leaders’ positions.

Stevenson said adoptions have decreased in states that have passed similar legislation.

“In every state that this is happening, adoptions are going down. They are reducing the number of viable couples that can adopt,” he said.

“It’s just completely unfair.”