When a Jewish couple in Tennessee tried to open their home to a child in need, they were denied. Not because they lacked qualifications, but because they were not Christian. The Rutan-Rams hoped to foster and later adopt a child from Florida. They began the state-required training process in Tennessee, only to be turned away by a state-funded private Christian agency. The reason they were given was simple: the agency only works with prospective parents who share their religious beliefs.
This was not just an act of personal bias that clearly violates the separation of church and state, it was protected by Tennessee law. In 2020, the state passed SB 1304, a law that allows private foster and adoption agencies to reject families based on their religious or moral convictions. The law ensures that these agencies can continue to receive state funding and contracts, even if they discriminate. It even protects them from being sued for turning families away.
Backed by Americans United, the Rutan-Rams are suing the state’s Department of Children’s Services, arguing that the law violates Tennessee’s own constitution. But what is happening in Tennessee is not an isolated incident. It is part of a much larger, organized effort to embed religious discrimination into public life: this effort is outlined in Project 2025, though it’s been going on for years.
Project 2025 is the nearly 1,000-page plan created by the conservative Heritage Foundation and now being implemented in large part by the Trump administration, and one of its key goals is expanding the ability of faith-based foster and adoption agencies to discriminate. It proposes a federal law called the Child Welfare Provider Inclusion Act, which would allow agencies across the country to make placement decisions based on their religious beliefs. In practice, this means more families like the Rutan-Rams will be turned away, and more children will be left waiting for homes. The goal of this law is not to protect religious freedom, it is to allow discrimination without consequences.
But some states offer a very different vision of what child welfare can look like. In fact, federal law makes it clear that discrimination is not allowed in foster care and adoption programs that receive federal or state financial assistance. Under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, agencies cannot discriminate based on race, color, or national origin. California law goes even further. In my home state of California, protections under the California Welfare and Institutions Code Section 16013 prohibit discrimination against foster and adoptive families based on religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, and other characteristics. These protections ensure that placement decisions are made with impartiality, respecting the needs of children and diverse backgrounds of families rather than prioritizing the personal beliefs of agencies. In California, there is a focus on safeguarding the religious freedom of children and families, not on empowering agencies to impose their own religious or moral preferences.
When we compare laws in Tennessee to California, we are comparing two very different ideas about fairness, safety and family. One model follows the Christian Nationalist playbook and allows agencies to exclude loving, qualified families just because they do not follow a specific religion. The other model ensures that children and families are treated with dignity and respect, no matter who they are or what they believe.
This issue matters to me as someone who believes in true religious freedom. What is happening in Tennessee and being pushed on a national level by Project 2025 is not about freedom, it is about control and about giving government-funded agencies the power to impose their religious beliefs on others. And it is about removing the rights of anyone who does not fit that mold, including children.
The Trump administration is already making moves to promote this agenda, for example with the launch of the “Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias” in the federal government, which held its first meeting last week. As Americans United has pointed out, “this task force will misuse religious freedom to justify bigotry, discrimination, and the subversion of our civil rights laws.” This moment demands that we speak out, that we protect kids from being caught in the crossfire, and that we fight for a foster care system that welcomes families instead of rejecting them.
Every child deserves love, safety, and a place to belong, and every family willing to offer that should be embraced, not pushed out by religious litmus tests. The government should not be the one to decide who is worthy of being a parent based on their faith. Because when it does, the ones who suffer most are the children waiting for someone to say yes to them.
