Only Christians recognize that each child has “a soul that will never die” as the Catechism for Young Children so boldly says. The world can only see children as genetics, personality, or potential. Christians see them as those in whom the very Spirit of God is often pleased to dwell.

Editor’s Note: Megan Hill will be writing occasionally for The Aquila Report. She has agreed to pick a ‘World and Life’ topic story, research and analyze it from a Christian perspective, and then assist our readers to be informed on important issues in our culture. She has a BA in English from Grove City College and enjoys using her God-given gift of writing.

Foster care is not ideal. And for foster children in the state of Illinois, where a judge upheld the cancellation of Catholic Charities’ state foster and adoption contracts, a difficult situation is now worse.

On June 1, the state of Illinois enacted a same-sex civil unions law, then failed to renew the contract of Catholic Charities when it expired on June 30. According to the Chicago Tribune, the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services told Catholic Charities their contracts were not renewed because “’your agency has made it clear that it does not intend to comply with the Illinois Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Union Act,’” inferring that potential parents in a civil union should be treated the same as those in a marriage. At the end of August in an appeal case, a county circuit judge concurred, ruling that the state was entitled to renew contracts at its own discretion.

Of course, this court case is not really about the children, but it should be.

This case is about compliance with the ironically named “Illinois Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Union Act.” This case is about whether Catholic Charities, who serves 20 percent of the state’s caseload for foster children and has consistently refused to place these children with same-sex couples, should be granted religious protection. And it’s about the right of states to issue and cancel contracts to provide government services.

But the morning cartoons, after-school snacks, and bedtime stories of 2,000 Illinois children are the collateral damage.

Ultimately, Judge John Schmidt, who presided at the appeal of the Illinois dioceses, has decided that children who are wards of the state cannot be served by organizations that don’t endorse the state’s position on homosexuality. This has implications.

Can these foster children attend a Christian school? Or, can a Christian school even be recognized as a legal private school for any child if it refuses to hire or enroll homosexuals? Can these foster children attend a religious day care or after-school care? Or, can church-run day care centers qualify to be licensed at all by the state if they don’t comply with the state’s stand on homosexuality?

This is sad for children.

Because, of course, it is the Christian community who loves and cares for children best. Only Christians view children as the Lord Jesus Himself viewed them: as those who are made in the image of God, created to praise Him, in need of the Gospel, and a vital part of the Kingdom.

Only Christians recognize that each child has “a soul that will never die” as the Catechism for Young Children so boldly says.

The world can only see children as genetics, personality, or potential. Christians see them as those in whom the very Spirit of God is often pleased to dwell.

The Illinois court decision does not open new avenues for children; it cuts them off from some of the best care they could possibly receive. And foster children, who have experienced loss and grief, whose first families were unable to provide for their basic needs, who have already survived disruption when they most needed continuity . . .these children, in particular, are the losers in this decision.

2,000 children in Illinois have been deprived of stability, of a place to hang up their backpacks, of a familiar neighborhood. In exchange, they will now have the opportunity to be parented by two people who are themselves unsuited in the most basic sense to be parents. They have been drafted into a social experiment, joining children in Massachusetts and the District of Columbia who, according to the WORLD News Service, no longer find parents through Catholic Charities, either.

And Christian families and organizations, who could provide physical homes and eternal hope to the “least of these” are once again edged out of the very public sphere where they could do so much good.

Belz, Emily. “Illiniois Judge Rules Against Catholic Charities in Its Bid to Preserve Foster Care Contracts

WORLD News Service. 27 August 2011.

Brachear, Manya. “State Severs Foster Care Ties with Catholic Charities.” Chicago Tribune. 11 July 2011.

@Copyright 2011 Megan Evans Hill – used with permission
Megan is a PCA ‘Preacher’s Kid’ married to Rob Hill who is pastor of St. Paul Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Jackson, MS She and her mom, Patsy Evans of Coventry, CT, blog at Sunday Women.