The Moral Fog in Topeka
By Paul Waggoner, House of Representatives District 104
It has been an exceptionally dry winter in Kansas this year. Fortunately, spring is upon us with its promise of much needed rain.
But if you combine springtime high humidity, dormant winds, and air cooler than the Kansas landscape you can get fog and lots of it. Which, come to think of it, is an apt metaphor for Topeka.
It was Mary Clarkin’s recent article “Adoption, medical pot split lawmakers” (News, April 1) that got me thinking about the climate in our state legislature.
In Clarkin’s article, the issue at hand was Senate Bill 401, the simple 1 ½-page Adoption Protection Act relating to, and I quote, “the religious freedoms of private entities” involved in foster care or adoption services.
Ever since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision in 2015 redefining marriage, liberal groups have been on a roll to expand the impact of this decree. One area has been in how adoption’s are treated.
In multiple blue states, Catholic Charities and many Christian agencies have been forced out of business by the state because they don’t believe in placing children with same-sex couples. Even though the number of same-sex placements is miniscule (about 1%) and even though there are multiple secular agencies that accommodate that market, faith-based agencies in those states must conform or else.
In more conservative areas, a number of state legislatures have been proactive to prevent such legal abuses of power. Kansas would be the eighth state to clarify its law.
Senate Bill 401 was introduced by Sen. Molly Baumgardner (R-Louisberg) to insure that faith-based adoption agencies would be free to both be true to their religious identity and to serve as many children as possible.
In response the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union), the Johnson county Mainstream Coalition, and the gay activist Equality Kansas groups all went on the attack. That provoked a lengthy debate this March in the Kansas Senate. The Senate then passed SB 401 on a 28-12 vote with Senator Ed Berger (R-Hutchinson) voting with the majority.
In the House a similar measure (HB 2867) was introduced by Rep. Susan Humphries (R-Wichita) with 31 co-sponsors including Reno county Republican representatives Joe Siewert and Jack Thimmesch.
The testimony in favor of the measure is nicely archived at the kansastruthcaucus.org website (under Issues).
The testimony came from a broad and diverse group that included the Catholic conference and Catholic Charities, the Kansas Family Policy Alliance, multiple Christian adoption agencies, and the Kansas Department of Children and Families.
The Catholic Conference noted the new law does not take away anyone’s right to adopt but guarantees that in a “diverse society” all adoption providers can thrive.
Eric Teetsel of the Kansas Family Policy Alliance quoted President Thomas Jefferson who assured the nuns at a Catholic orphanage in New Orleans in 1804 that in America “your rights are sacred and inviolate” and that “your institution will be permitted to govern itself according to its own voluntary rules, without interference from the civil authority”.
But to the modern version of Democrats allowing faith-based groups to make their own judgment calls is “state-sanctioned discrimination”. Even though the facts are that these agencies are funded privately and receive no direct state funds, and only need state licensing to operate.
The Democrats version of legal reality is so severe, it was noted, that if Mother Theresa and her Sisters of Charity had come to Kansas they would not be allowed to do their child and adoption ministry!
Nevertheless, on March 29 the Senate Bill was presented to the House as a concurring resolution but it failed 58-64. Locally, Republican Representatives Thimmesch and Seiwert were yes votes, while Rep. Steve Becker (R-Buhler) joined Jason Probst (D-Hutchinson) in voting no.
Siewert expressed dismay to me that an act of simple religious accommodation would be defeated in the legislature. But I was not so surprised given the Democrats (and, it should be noted, Rep. Beckers) 2016 negative votes on the Campus Religious Freedom Act. That measured passed, but the arguments against it were almost identical to those raised against SB 401.
There is still time this session for another vote on this measure, and some believe it could pass.
I am not so optimistic. In the same April 1 article Mary Clarkins recounted a legislative attempt to legalize medical marijuana in Kansas. The very same local representatives who voted against religious liberty (Becker and Probst) voted for increased access to pot. How telling.
The dazed and confused coalition is apparently upon us. Common sense being, I would argue, the first thing now missing in this political fog.
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