“We had one little girl for three years. We were able to walk through the whole process with her of saying goodbye to her parents and transitioning her to an adoptive home. We taught her to choose a different path in life.”
“We taught her that God loved her and that was amazing.”
These are the words of a Christian family who has partnered with Miracle Hill Ministries to foster 4 different children over recent years.
According to their website, “Since 1988, Miracle Hill has been recruiting Christian foster families – both single and married — and providing them with vital support throughout the licensing process, placements and beyond.”
But despite this amazing work, radical atheists inside the Obama administration made it their mission to shut this Christian foster care ministry down.
The Christian foster care system has been under attack for years for their preference that children under their care find homes with Christian families.
For those who work in the Christian foster care system, it is paramount for them to be able to find Godly homes to care for not only a child’s physical needs, but also his or her spiritual needs as well.
In some states, such as Illinois, some of the Christian foster care and adoption agencies have been shut down for their refusal to adopt out to same-sex or non-Christian couples.
This has been cited as an issue of discrimination, but in South Carolina, a flicker of hope came to Christian foster care and adoption in January 2019.
South Carolina’s largest foster care agency is Miracle Hill, a Christian agency who worked hard to place their children in Christian homes.
Due to an Obama-era religious non-discrimination act, Miracle Hill had been told that they could no longer have a religious preference when placing children with families.
This act was enforced by Health and Human Services, forbidding any organization who receives federal funding to have any religious preference.
However, Miracle Hill did not agree with the rule and after South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster got on their side, it was clear that they would not go down without a fight.
Governor McMaster asked President Trump for an exemption to this rule last year.
It took almost a full year of investigations, meetings between HHS and McMaster, and final sign off from President Trump to produce the desired result.
Finally, Health and Human Services agreed that the ruling against religious preference was unconstitutional and went against the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993.
Although Miracle Hill will still have to adhere to anti-discrimination acts by referring non-Christian families to other foster care agencies in the area, they are free to place the children under their care with families who hold to their same religious beliefs.
This is a great victory for Miracle Hill, as well as for other Christian foster care agencies all over the country. If they can fight for the freedom to place their children with loving families that share their beliefs and meet their requirements, then so can others.
It won’t be easy for those who have already been shut down, but it does show a glimmer of hope to those who feel the calling of God in their hearts to care for, and find families for, these children who do not have families to care for them.
Of course, the anti-God extremists at the Freedom From Religion Foundation were outraged by this decision.
They state that the Trump administration is, “using religion to advance a regressive political agenda that harms others,” and that this exemption “sets a dangerous nationwide precedent that elevates the beliefs of government-funded programs over the best interests of the children in their care.”
But is it in the best interest of the children to send them to homes that the foster care agency is not certain can care for their spiritual needs?
Is it in their best interest to send them to those who do not believe in the kind of Love that God tells us we must have for our children?
As Health and Human Services has continued to reiterate, there are still other agencies that non-Christian families can go through to adopt a child or to apply for foster care.
Only time will tell if more headway can be made in other parts of the country, but hope is not easily extinguished and one show of a fighting spirit has been known to ignite the same spirit in others.
Let us pray for the souls of children all over the world who are searching for Love, searching for families, and needing the kind of Love that only God can give them.
If you would like to donate to the Christian Alliance for Orphans, or if you want more information on foster care and adoption, please visit https://cafo.org/nfci.
