Bethany Christian Services announced on Monday a new inclusivity policy supporting LGBTQ parents nationwide, The New York Times reported.
“To use a Christian term, this is good news,” said Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons, a fellow with the Faith and Progressive Policy Initiative at the Center for American Progress told NYT. “For too long the public witness of Christianity has been anti-this or anti-that. Today the focus is on serving children in need.”
The Corporate Board of Directors implemented a nationwide policy of
inclusivity on Jan. 21 to serve all families across “Bethany’s core service lines.”
Bethany’s president and chief executive, Chris Palusky shared with employees they will offer services with the love and compassion of Jesus to the many types of families who exist in our world today.
Palusky wrote:
“For the past 75 years, Bethany Christian Services has never wavered from our mission of demonstrating the love and compassion of Jesus to children and families. We help families stay together, we reunify families who are separated, and we help vulnerable children find safe, stable homes when they cannot remain in their own.
“These days, families look a lot different than they did when we started. And Bethany is committed to welcoming and serving all of them.
“For us to carry out our mission, we are building a broad coalition of people – finding families and resources for children in the greatest need. The people we serve deserve to know they are worthy of being safe, loved, and connected. The need is great, so we are taking an ‘all hands on deck’ approach.”
Bethany is one of the biggest Protestant adoption and foster agencies in the nation, operating in 32 states.
Julie Roys, a veteran investigative reporter and Christian author tweeted:
Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty said in a statement on Monday, “I am disappointed in this decision, as are many. This move will harm already existing efforts to enable faith-based orphan care ministries to serve the vulnerable without capitulating on core Christian convictions,” he added, referring to litigation like the case in Philadelphia.
President of Focus on the Family and host of its flagship radio program, Jim Daly tweeted:
The Great Lakes State organization was hit with a lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in 2018 after referring a lesbian Philadelphia couple to different agencies for services. It started offering gay couples services in 2019 after that settlement.
The new policy does not directly mention LGBTQ parents.
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—by CNJ Staff