As has been widely reported, the Biden administration spent years persecuting Christians who live out their faith, even those who volunteered to serve as foster parents for some of the most vulnerable children in their community. Now that Joe Biden has left the Oval Office and President Donald Trump has once again entered it, some of these Christians are hopeful that the persecution they’ve endured in the foster-care and adoption systems will come to an end.
Blaze News caught up with several of these Christians whose travails in the foster-care and adoption systems made national news. All are hopeful that in Trump’s second term, Christians will no longer suffer discrimination on account of their faith or risk compromising their most cherished religious beliefs in order to become foster or adoptive parents.
‘Dangerous’: Biden, faith, and foster kids
Though a Catholic who purports to attend Mass regularly and who once claimed that his faith “defines” him, Joe Biden spent more than a decade as vice president and then as president targeting fellow Catholics and other Christians who adhere to biblical teaching on issues such as abortion, contraception, marriage, and gender.
Early in his presidency, the Supreme Court seemed to warn against discriminating against faith-based organizations for adoptive and foster placements. In 2021, the justices unanimously ruled that the city of Philadelphia violated the First Amendment in severing ties with a Catholic foster agency because it would not certify same-sex couples.
All LGBTQ children should be ‘placed in foster homes where they will be protected from mistreatment related to their sexual orientation or gender identity.’
That case, commonly referred to as Fulton, compelled Philadelphia and other blue municipalities and states to reconsider working with faith-based organizations for foster and adoptive care.
Nevertheless, Biden seemed to take a keen interest in gender- and sexually confused foster children. In 2022, he issued an executive order to address “disparities that LGBTQI+ youth face in the foster care system,” pledging to keep them from the practice of conversion therapy, which he described as “dangerous.”
He also called on foster parents to “affirm” the gender identities of foster children in their care and for agencies to create a pool of “affirming” families available for LGBTQ-identifying foster placements. All LGBTQ children should be “placed in foster homes where they will be protected from mistreatment related to their sexual orientation or gender identity, where their caregivers have received special training on how to meet their needs, and where they can access the services they need to thrive,” Biden said in September 2023.
This fixation on LGBTQ-related issues prompted some states to begin openly discriminating against people of faith who stepped forward to serve as foster parents. And since Christians foster and adopt children at twice the rate of the general American population and fully 65% of foster parents regularly attend church services, this discrimination affected a large number of licensed and prospective foster parents.
‘Their faith is not supportive’: Kitty and Mike Burke
One of the most egregious cases of anti-Christian discrimination in the foster-care system involves Mike and Kitty Burke of Massachusetts. After discovering they could not have biological children, the couple decided to consider other parenthood options and sought to become licensed foster parents. Though they went through invasive home inspections and hours upon hours of training, the state Department of Children and Families ultimately denied the Burkes a license on account of their Catholic faith.
Kitty Burke told Blaze News that she and her husband were “absolutely devastated” about the denial. They appealed their case and partnered with legal experts at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, who immediately filed a lawsuit on their behalf.
Photo from Becket Fund for Religious Liberty website. Used with permission.
According to documents included in the complaint, officials from the DCF and a private organization called 18 Degrees openly engaged in anti-Christian discrimination in the Burkes’ case.
In a message dated October 2022, Linda-Jeanne Mack of 18 Degrees contacted Dawn Sweetman of the DCF to express “concerns” regarding the Burkes and LGBTQ issues.
“They had the ‘right answers,'” Mack wrote, “but they are not supportive of LGBTQIA+ youth, we didn’t even talk about trans youth.”
“Their faith is not supportive and neither are they,” Mack continued, even as she described the Burkes as “lovely people” who “have a lot of strengths.” Mack then recommended approving the Burkes for a license — with conditions “specifically around religion and LGBTQIA++ related issues.”
Screenshot of complaint
Five months later, social worker Tywanna Jones of the DCF apparently documented the decision of her license review team to deny the Burkes’ application, despite “their willingness to parent a child w/moderately significant medical, mental health and behavioral needs” and to maintain connections with a child’s birth family.
“Issue(s) of concern for which the couple’s license study was denied is based on the couple’s statements/responses regarding placement of children who identified LGBTQIA,” Jones said.
Screenshot of complaint
Kitty Burke told Blaze News an entirely different version of events. She claimed that she and her husband repeatedly insisted that they would love and care for any child in their home, including sibling groups and children with disabilities.
“We more than had the space for it,” she explained. “… We had a basically an open-door policy of children that we were ready to welcome into our home.”
Burke noted that she, a former paraprofessional for special-needs students, and her husband, a former combat Marine who previously received treatment for PTSD, are in a unique position to care for vulnerable, traumatized children.
“My husband and I both work from home, so we are essentially stay-at-home parents, the both of us,” she said.
‘A foster parent shall not be discriminated against on the basis of religion, race, color, [or] creed.’
Burke also claimed that during home visits and other communications, the state and 18 Degrees representatives harped on the couple’s Catholic faith, often grilling them about the teachings of the Catholic Church.
“Most of the interview questions seemed to focus both on our faith and on the Catholic views on sexuality and marriage,” she said.
In court documents, the Burkes said “much of the questioning centered around their views on sexuality and their response if a child were, in the future, to struggle with gender dysphoria or to identify as gay or lesbian.”
“It was a lot of hypothetical questions,” Kitty Burke told Blaze News.
Such probing questions about their church and denying the Burkes a license based on their religious identity also seem to run afoul of the state foster parents’ bill of rights, which expressly prohibits such discrimination. “A foster parent shall not be discriminated against on the basis of religion, race, color, creed, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, age or disability,” reads one of the first lines of the bill that is considered part of the Massachusetts General Laws.
District Judge Mark Mastroianni seemed amenable to the Burkes’ allegations of discrimination in light of Fulton, ruling in the couple’s favor after defendants in their lawsuit filed a partial motion to dismiss. The litigation in this case remains ongoing.
William Haun, senior counsel at the Becket Fund who represents the Burkes, told Blaze News that he is confident that his clients will ultimately prevail in court and that state foster agencies will no longer be able to use the “discretion” granted to them to ensure that kids are placed in well-suited homes as “a weapon against religious families or religious groups.”
While Kitty Burke still expressed interest in fostering children, she emphasized that, first and foremost, she wants to prevent other people of faith from suffering the same discrimination.
“Our goal is to make sure that Massachusetts can never do this to a family again,” she told Blaze News. “Because at the end of the day, it’s the children who are the biggest losers. It’s the children who are stuck living in these horrible situations.”
Massachusetts DCF and 18 Degrees did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.
‘Because of your faith’: Jay and Nancy Harmon
A similar situation with a much happier ending involves Jay and Nancy Harmon of Minnesota. After more than two decades as foster parents, the Harmons were nearly denied the opportunity to adopt one of their foster daughters because of their Christian faith.
Nancy Harmon shared her rather unique story with Blaze News. Nancy was actually once a Minnesota foster kid herself, after she reported to school officials one day that her abusive and alcoholic mother had threatened her with a knife the previous evening. Unbeknownst to Nancy, her English teacher, Barb, was at that time a foster parent and volunteered to care for Nancy in her time of need.
Those few months with Barb are some of Nancy’s most cherished childhood memories. “The first time Barb gave me a hug, she just smelled amazing. I was just like, I never thought that a mom could be so loving, tender, and smell so good all in one breath,” Harmon recalled to Blaze News.
Nancy and Jay married when Nancy was just 17, and they soon started a family. They also had a radical conversion to Christ and Christianity.
Nancy then felt compelled to care for foster children as Barb had once cared for her. The Harmons paired up with a Lutheran organization and began fostering children. Over the course of 24 years or so, they welcomed more than 50 children into their home without a major issue.
‘Maybe I was naive.’
That all changed in early 2023, when the state asked the Harmons to consider adopting the three sisters who had already been living with them for approximately 18 months. After praying and talking it over, the Harmons agreed — only to have the state rescind the invitation to adopt the oldest sister.
Nancy learned the news that officials had changed their minds when she accidentally received an email that she wasn’t meant to see. The email stated that she and Jay were not the right “fit” for the girl, who had expressed to an adoption worker some type of struggle with her sexual or gender identity, Nancy said.
When Nancy called caseworkers to inquire why her family was not “fit” to adopt the girl, she was told in no uncertain terms that it was because of their Christian faith.
“She’s like, ‘I’m so sorry. You weren’t meant to receive that email.’ And I said I need an explanation. Why do you feel like we’re not the right ‘fit’?” Nancy recalled to Blaze News.
“And she said, ‘Just to be honest, it’s because of your faith. It’s because of your religious beliefs.'”
At a meeting a week later attended by the Harmons, the girl in question, and some adoption workers, Nancy received a similar explanation. “Both the county worker and the adoption agency that they were working through point-blank said, ‘It’s because of your religious beliefs,'” Harmon claimed.
The Harmons were “shocked,” Nancy said, not only because they had never encountered this issue before after decades of fostering but because they had never even been asked about their religious beliefs regarding sexuality and gender.
“They didn’t even ask if we would affirm her,” Harmon told Blaze News, nor did they consult any of the mental-health professionals working with the girl before determining that the Harmons were the wrong “fit” for her.
Adoption agents then decided that the Harmons could proceed with adopting the two younger girls but that they would have to find an alternative home for the oldest, who was frustrated and furious that a private conversation could tear apart her family. The suggested compromise satisfied no one in the Harmon household.
“You’re just going to split them up?” Harmon remembers thinking. “… Is that the best interest of the child? I don’t think so.”
After some continued wrangling, the girl’s therapist eventually wrote a letter urging the court to keep the three girls together and to allow the Harmons to adopt them. The girls officially became part of the Harmon family in December 2023.
Looking back, Nancy still feels blindsided by the recent obsession with sexuality and gender in the foster-care system.
“It seems to me that all of a sudden there was this change about gender ideology that just flipped on a dime, for sure,” she said, “and I didn’t think it was going to affect us.”
“I just thought I can just be the normal family that we are, that loves God and can take care of kids, you know? But that’s not the case,” she continued.
“Maybe I was naive.”
Blaze News made contact with one supervisor involved with child protection and licensing in Nicollet County, where the Harmons live. The supervisor, who included pronouns in his email signature, then recommended contacting Health and Human Services Director Cassandra Sassenberg.
Sassenberg, who also included pronouns in her email signature, declined to comment, citing laws prohibiting release of data without permission from the subject or the court. She added:
Nicollet County Health and Human Services is not involved in all adoptions that occur within Nicollet County. To the extent Nicollet County is involved in adoptions and the selection of adoptive families, Nicollet County follows all guidance provided by the Department of Children and Family Services as well as Minnesota Statute … when it makes recommendations to the court.
‘It’s a good sign’: Hope for change under Trump
Earlier this month, just a couple of weeks into his second term, President Donald Trump issued an executive order demanding an investigation into anti-Christian discrimination in sectors and industries across America.
“My Administration will not tolerate anti-Christian weaponization of government or unlawful conduct targeting Christians. The law protects the freedom of Americans and groups of Americans to practice their faith in peace, and my Administration will enforce the law and protect these freedoms. My Administration will ensure that any unlawful and improper conduct, policies, or practices that target Christians are identified, terminated, and rectified,” it read.
The order, entitled “Eradicating Anti-Christian Bias,” specifically mentioned the plight of Christians in the foster-care system under the previous administration. “The Biden Department of Health and Human Services sought to drive Christians who do not conform to certain beliefs on sexual orientation and gender identity out of the foster-care system,” it said.
Between the EO and Trump’s recent pardons for Christians arrested in connection with peaceful protests outside abortion facilities, Christians are hopeful that they will no longer be targeted for their views on gender, marriage, and sexuality.
Andrea Picciotti-Bayer — the director of the Conscience Project who also filed amicus briefs on behalf of several beleaguered foster and adoptive parents, including the Harmons — is encouraged by what she has seen and heard from Trump.
“It’s a good sign that he’s stated publicly and very clearly that gender ideology is really a frontal assault on the well-being of America’s youth,” she told Blaze News.
Picciotti-Bayer reiterated that “Trump is very aware” of how the Biden administration foisted woke, gender-related ideology onto various federal agencies, including the State Department, the Health and Human Services Department, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
“He’s very well aware of the need to extract the ideology out of the federal government,” she said.
‘It takes time to unwind all of the mess that’s happened.’
The Harmons are likewise “thrilled” about the future in Trump’s second term. “This gives our kids time and gives us hope that the executive order he signed will prevent many children from making a mistake that will affect them for the rest of their lives,” Nancy Harmon said in a statement to Blaze News.
William Haun, the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty senior counsel who represents the Burkes, also hopes that soon Christians across America will be able to live their faith openly without fear of reprisal from their government.
“Foster children nationwide are waiting to be welcomed into safe, loving homes. Unfortunately, there’s been a disturbing trend of state and local governments blocking children in need from forever homes like Mike and Kitty’s because of their religious beliefs. We are hopeful that the new administration will take steps to ensure families like the Burkes aren’t punished for their faith any longer,” he said in a statement to Blaze News.
Still, everyone is keeping their expectations measured. Picciotti-Bayer warned that due to the nature of the administrative state, the process of removing that ideology won’t be easy. “It takes time to unwind all of the mess that’s happened,” she said.
Haun also wants to see Massachusetts own up to targeting Christians like the Burkes for their faith. “I think the government needs to say, ‘Hey, we’re actually going to treat you fairly this time. We’re not going to treat your religious beliefs like a problem,'” he told Blaze News.
“Until that kind of assurance comes through, I think, really, the ball’s in Massachusetts’ court.”
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T3, Donald trump, Foster care, Anti-christian bias, Anti-christian discrimination, Discrimination, Faith-based organizations, Christian, Catholics, Catholic church, Politics
