The Good News
This morning, the Supreme Court of the United States, in a unanimous decision, declared a victory for religious freedom when they ruled against the city of Philadelphia’s decision to stop funding to faith-based adoption and foster care agencies. The 9-0 decision exposed the hypocrisy and lack of concern for children by leaders in Philadelphia who stopped funding to agencies who would not place children in homes that were not in line with the agencies’ faith standards. Astoundingly, the decision by Philadelphia to stop funding came shortly after they put out an urgent call for 300 more foster parents in March 2018.
In today’s decision, Chief Justice Roberts stated, “Maximizing the number of foster families and minimizing liability are important goals, but the city fails to show that granting Catholic Social Services an exception will put those goals at risk. If anything, including CSS in the program seems likely to increase, not reduce, the number of available foster parents.”
Click here to read more about this important ruling.
Speaking of Adoption
Adoption Solutions of Maine is hosting a free Choose Life: Day of Hope Retreat. Please join me in Falmouth on Thursday, June 24 from 9 am to 3 pm at the Holy Martyrs Church. Come be part of the conversation along with some great national and local presenters regarding the ministry of adoption here in Maine. Click here for details and registration.
The Bad News
I’m not going to sugarcoat this: as this legislative session comes to a close, two things have become drastically apparent: 1) we have some faithful and committed allies for truth and biblical values in our legislature and, 2) there simply are not enough of them. Every bill for which we advocated regarding parental rights, religious freedom, the sanctity of human life, and gender identity was defeated. We also saw significant losses regarding the regulation of marijuana and potential gambling expansion.
I want to thank all of you in our network who courageously showed up for public hearings. I also want to thank Mike McClellan, our policy director, for the great increase we saw in informing individuals who personally reached out to their legislators during the session. At the risk of sounding partisan, the simple fact is we could not persuade enough Democrats to break away from their parties’ progressive stronghold and cross over to join the Republicans who did solidly defend these values.
At this time, there are not many opportunities for continued advocacy. There will be a veto day toward the end of this month. If the governor does consider opposing some of this destructive legislation, we will conduct a campaign to lobby her both directly and via grass roots.
If you spend any time around me or reading what I produce, you have heard me say, “Elections have consequences.” I sincerely pray that Mainers, upon learning about the harmful bills that were foisted upon them in this last legislative session, will be motivated to seriously consider running for local or state offices. We could not challenge you to do that without offering to equip you. Email Mike McClellan at policy@cclmaine.org to get information about our July 24th and July 31st candidate training sessions in Auburn and in Bangor.
We are willing to serve your ministry by speaking in person or recording services for you. If you are interested in the League helping out with your pulpit needs, contact Carroll at carroll.conley@gmail.com
