Curriculum for social workers and foster parents in Pennsylvania decries the prevalence of “homophobia” and “heterosexism” in religious communities, even as Christian parents across the nation pursuing adoption and foster care face pressure because of their convictions about biblical sexual ethics.
The course materials reviewed by The Sentinel, which were developed by a coalition of researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and state government officials called the Pennsylvania Child Welfare Resource Center, seek to inform “child welfare caseworkers, supervisors, and foster parents” about the “prevalence of LGBTQ youth and knowledge of the issues and health disparities facing these youth.” One slide presentation used during the six-hour workshop laments that a “majority of churches” and other religious groups “reject homosexuality.”
The presentation also informs social workers and foster parents that “homophobia” is a behavior “characterized by fear, prejudice, and even hatred against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning persons,” while “heterosexism” is a behavior “characterized by a chauvinistic attitude which maintains that normal persons are heterosexual.” The slides contend that homophobia can be seen in “repulsion” or “pity” toward those leading homosexual lifestyles; mere “acceptance” is seen as the least severe of several “negative” reactions to homosexuality.
The materials contain various nonprofit resources for “lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning youth in the child welfare system.” The curriculum also includes a list of possible scenarios that social workers in Pennsylvania could face: one scenario says that “there is no one ‘right’ answer” with respect to removing a child from a “foster home where the foster parent is not affirming of their identity,” while another says that “online resources” or “an affirming therapist” could assist foster children who live in a “rural location where the community does not offer many LGBT-affirming services.”
The Sentinel contacted the Pennsylvania Department of Health and the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services to ask how many parents and social workers have completed the workshop; this article will be updated with any response.
Religious parents in progressive-leaning states such as Massachusetts and Oregon have recently been barred from pursuing adoption or foster care because of their views on biblical sexual ethics, as previously reported by The Sentinel. Christians have historically confessed that a marital union between one man and one woman is the only permissible context for sexual intimacy.
Davis Younts, an attorney based in Lemoyne, Pennsylvania, said in remarks provided to The Sentinel that there are currently cases in Pennsylvania where “children have been removed from the home because of the religious beliefs of the parents” and their refusal to allow “puberty blockers and other dangerous and life-altering medical treatments for their young children.”
“Social workers are being taught that the traditional religious beliefs of parents may create a danger to children and could result in emotional abuse,” he commented. “Specifically, they are being taught that if parents are not fully affirming and fully supportive of children who identify as LGBTQ, the children may no longer be safe in the home.”
Luke Griffo, who recently adopted two children in Pennsylvania alongside his wife, said in comments to The Sentinel that he was provided with similar third-party resources about homophobia from the state government and was told that he would have to complete them to be recertified for adoption in his county. He asserted that invasive state-sponsored ideology is restrictive toward parents who seek to minister to their hurting adoptive and foster children with the Christian faith.
“As Christians, my wife and I understand that that the best thing for foster children is not just to be in a stable home with a loving father and mother, but in a home that understands and teaches the gospel of Christ, because that is the only way that any brokenness can truly be healed,” he remarked. “The fact that the state is essentially straining out these families demonstrates a lack of genuine care for the needs of these children for the sake of ideology. It also demonstrates that some orthodox standard of right and wrong will be enforced in the public square, and the church’s lack of an insistence on God’s law as the only acceptable standard has led to the vacuum being filled by a secular neo-paganism.”
Increased pressure toward Christian parents in the adoptive and foster care system occurs even as practicing Christians adopt at more than double the rate of the rest of the population, according to a study from the Barna Group.
