A recent case denying a Christian family the right to adopt children has exposed the Canadian government’s official position that it discriminates against people of Faith. What may be even more troubling about this inherently biased secular edict is the Catholic Church’s willingness to go along with it.
An Evangelical couple in the Alberta province were denied the legal right of adoption after strict scrutiny by a local chapter of Catholic Social Services and the provincial government. Although the agencies found no disqualifying measures such as abuse, addiction or criminal behavior, they took exception to the strong Evangelical Faith that formed the foundation of the married Christian couple.
The Catholic and governmental bureaucracy both agreed that the couple’s strong adherence to The Bible and the teaching of Jesus Christ effectively made them unfit parents. The Biblical prohibitions against homosexual acts, apparently, is at odds with the Canadian government and Catholic Social Services, according to attorneys at the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms.
Despite no other disqualifying items in their application and Catholic Social Services initially agreeing to approve the adoption application, the Christian couple was denied because the agency and government claimed they would be unable to “help” a child that may have “sexual identity issues.” According to Alberta’s Child and Family Services, the “official position of the Alberta government” is that people who believe in core Christian child-rearing automatically “reject” LGBT youths and are thereby unfit.
Alberta province’s Child and Family Services hung their hat on the couple’s beliefs about homosexuality because they are Evangelical Christians despite the fact they clearly stated a “commitment to treating any child in their care with unconditional love, respect, and compassion regardless of what the child chose to do, and regardless of the child’s sexual orientation or behavior,” according to the Justice Centre.
The bigotry against this Evangelical couple stands as another clash between the rights of God-loving Christians and powerful governmental forces attempting to secularize communities.
In the United States, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments about a Colorado case known as Masterpiece Cakeshop in which a devout Christian declined to participate in a gay marriage by making a wedding cake. The cake-maker has been successfully sued before the Colorado Civil Rights Commission and state courts. Like the Evangelical couple being denied adoptive parent status based on Faith, Masterpiece Cakeshop pits gay rights against religious rights.
What is particularly troubling in both of these, and other instances, is that governments have taken a policy position that is not neutral. In both cases, the government places a higher value of secularism and flaunts its willingness to discriminate against the Biblical-based principles of Christians.
The Alberta couple has filed a civil lawsuit using the initials “C.D. and N.D” in an effort to protect their anonymity. The suit calls the obvious discrimination against them and Christians at large, “unreasonable and void by virtue of arbitrariness, bias, bad faith, as well as breaches of procedural fairness and natural justice.”
A Justice Centre report states that the Evangelicals presented an adoption application to Child and Family Services in October of 2016. The agency assigned their case to the Edmonton office of Catholic Social Services and a review of their psychological, financial, and economical status pointed toward approval. However, the agencies targeted their Evangelicalism as an extraordinary reason for denial.
The lawsuit points out that the denial “violates sections 2(a) and 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Alberta Bill of Rights and the Alberta Human Rights Act,” and requests an immediate reversal of the bureaucratic decision so they can become adoptive parents, according to the Justice Centre.
A press release, reportedly issued by Justice Centre president John Carpay states that, “Making determinations about who is suitable to adopt on the basis of their sincere religious beliefs violates this couple’s right to religious freedom and equality under the law as guaranteed in the Charter and in Alberta’s own Bill of Rights and Human Rights Act. If left to stand, this decision would have grave consequences for the freedoms of all Canadians, not to mention adverse consequences for the many children who will never be adopted if the government continues with this discrimination.”
The clash between the free exercise of Christian beliefs and the drive by secular forces to subvert the moral fabric of communities continues to be a played out in courtrooms throughout Canada and the United States. These are clear attempts to make Christians second class citizens.
~ Christian Patriot Daily
