Child Welfare

House Bill 3859 has allowed faith-based providers stop providing donations to child welfare unless those people follow through with their religious belief. When I first read this I was so confused, what does the protection and care of a child have anything to do with these people's religious beliefs. The bill not only stops funding, but allows them to discriminate against foster couples, including gay couples and non-Christians. It would also allow other foster parents to push their own religious agenda on foster kids, and deny them abortions, vaccinations, etc. The foster care system is so broken in America, and more efforts need to be put into the kids themselves, not their religious beliefs. These kids need a home, family, and most importantly safety. This bill has already affected the foster system, Catholic charities have already stopped giving funds to help the foster care system in Texas. One social worker is concerned with fighting too much for these funds, she's concerned social workers will not actually focus on helping the kids. So many kids in America alone go through so much abuse and neglect. Whatever happened to church & state being separate. One adoptive parent accused the state, saying they used this bill as an excuse to cut funds rather than just follow their religious beliefs. In my opinion, don't preach about your religious agenda if you're just going to use it to do things that go completely against it. After all, what would Jesus do?