The 3 - April 7, 2024

This week's edition of The 3, with three stories of relevance to the Christian community, has news out of the Florida Supreme Court, which recently handed down two seemingly conflicted issues relative to abortion. Also, there were two incidents surrounding Easter and the White House that proved to be offensive to Christians.  Plus, a couple who has been foster children has filed suit against a state agency because the couple can no longer be foster parents due to new regulations that require the affirming of "gender identity."

FL Supreme Court declares no constitutional right to abortion, but allows voters to decide the issue

There were mixed decisions out of the Florida Supreme Court last week, with the high court ruling that the state Constitution does not contain a right to abortion, but also allowed a ballot initiative to go to Florida voters in November.

Liberty Counsel reported that "...the Florida Supreme Court issued a groundbreaking opinion that upholds the 15-week abortion ban and overrules the prior abortion opinions going back to the first abortion opinion in 1989," adding that "...the Court ruled there is no right to abortion in the Florida Constitution. Now that the 15-week ban has been upheld, the six-week ban will soon go into effect.

The website noted last Monday:

Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “Today, the Florida Supreme Court rejected the dreadful history of abortion that began with an activist bench in 1989. Even before Liberty Counsel was founded in 1989, I have worked to overturn the In re T.W. decision because it did not have any basis in the Florida Constitution and has caused incalculable damage. Today, the wrongly decided abortion opinions are no more. The Constitution wins. Life wins.”

However, that could be short-lived, because the same court allowed another of those abortion amendments which have utilized deceptive language and heavy spending by the abortion industry in other states to be placed on the Florida ballot. Liberty Counsel also reported that the court " deceptive ballot initiative that proposes to codify unrestricted abortion in the state’s constitution may appear on the November ballot." Staver contended: “This proposed abortion amendment is the most extreme because it will wipe out every law regulating abortion. Other than parental notification, no law will survive, not even health and safety regulations. We must mobilize Floridians to vote ‘No’ on this deceptive amendment.”

Liberty Counsel's website stated:

Staver and Florida Senior Deputy Solicitor for the Attorney General Nathan Forrester argued before the court’s seven justices that the amendment’s language was misleading, deceptive, and violated the single subject rule. Staver argued on behalf of Liberty Counsel and presented written argument to the Court that the amendment would also conflict with many existing laws which affirm that an “unborn child” or an “unborn person” has legal rights.

Trans Day of Visibility becomes more visible this year because it fell on Easter Sunday; White House event bans religious imagery for Easter Egg Roll

It was perceived by Christians as a double case of religious discrimination: the proclamation by the President of the United States of a Transgender Day of Visibility on Easter Sunday and the restriction placed on an Easter Egg decorating contest at the White House that banned religious imagery.

At The Washington Stand, Ben Johnson wrote:

The Biden administration’s revolution began where all revolutions begin: with children. The 2024 “Celebrating National Guard Families” art contest, which is part of the White House Easter Egg Roll, asks children of servicemembers to submit designs for Easter eggs ?" but not any that highlight the actual content of Easter. The contest’s flyer instructs children they “must not include any questionable content, religious symbols, overtly religious themes, or partisan political statements.” The Biden administration banned religious imagery alongside “bigotry, racism, hatred or harm against any group or individual or promotes discrimination based on race, gender, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age.”

Johnson made the case, using this and other examples, that "Christian children are second-class citizens in Biden’s America."  He added:

That makes it all the more revealing when Biden issued an official statement on Friday declaring Easter Sunday, March 31, as the “Transgender Day of Visibility.” (Biden finally got around to issuing a statement on Easter ?" on Sunday.) Biden actually previewed the shift to America’s new religion in the first of his two statements celebrating the 2023 “Transgender Day of Visibility,” in which Biden declared: “Transgender Americans shape our [n]ation’s soul.”

Biden’s wording was less effusive this year, but the content remained the same. “Transgender Americans are part of the fabric of our [n]ation,” Biden wrote. Since people who identify as transgender “help America thrive,” they deserve the “fundamental freedom to be their true selves,” Biden’s 2024 statement states.

Johnson, in his Washington Stand piece, took the President to task for "replacing Christianity with a new holiday celebrating transgender ideology (which, one must concede, relies entirely on faith)..."

The Stand article included a disclaimer regarding claims by the White House that these rules have been in place for many years; however, as it stated, its "...position is that it is irrelevant to the veracity of this article, which notes that this policy is still within the purview of the Biden administration."

General Counsel for National Religious Broadcasters Michael Farris agreed in a WORLD Magazine article. He wrote that the co-sponsor, the American Egg Board...

...explained that it has followed this same policy for decades—banning religious art in a contest to celebrate Easter—so to place blame on the Biden administration is unfair. The contest, so the Egg Board says, had the same rules under the Trump administration.

Apparently, this has never surfaced in public discussion until now. Consequently, no blame can be placed on any presidency for this discriminatory rule—until now.

The Biden White House continued the policy of banning religious symbols from Easter eggs. There was an opportunity not only to point out how silly such a policy is, but to clarify how government interacts with religion—as though religious symbols on eggs constitute some nefarious “establishment” of religion.

Farris notes: 

If a student enters a religious egg in the art contest, the egg is the work of the student and not the work of the government. This creation is fully protected by the Free Speech Clause, and discrimination against the student is forbidden by both the Free Exercise Clause and the Equal Protection Clause.

This is not a close call. The act of banning religiously decorated eggs is blatantly unconstitutional.

Foster care parents banned from continuing in that capacity due to gender identity flap file lawsuit

A couple in Washington state that has been fostering children for over a decade has found themselves unable to do so any longer because of a new law in the state that mandates that a foster parent has to affirm a child's so-called "gender identity."  Just the News ran an article from The Center Square that said:

After nine years serving as foster parents in Washington state, Shane and Jennifer DeGross say they have lost their foster care license because of their religious beliefs concerning gender identity policies.

The article notes that Johannes Widmalm-Delphonse, legal counsel with the Alliance Defending Freedom, told The Center Square, “The DeGrosses were told that based on new regulations passed in Washington as of 2022, they would be required to disavow their religious beliefs if they wanted to continue being foster parents.” The article goes on to say, "Widmalm-Delphonse explained that foster parents in Washington must now accommodate gender-affirming and sexual identity language and care for any child in their custody."

So, the DeGrosses have filed a lawsuit in federal court against the Washington State Department of Children, Youth & Families.

The Department responded through a statement, which said, in part: "We cannot and do not disqualify people from becoming foster parents on the basis of sincerely held religious beliefs. However, the permanent injunction does permit DCYF to take an applicant’s views on LGBTQ+ issues into account when reviewing foster family home license applications.”  But the couple's attorney said that the DCYF is only taking a portion of that court ruling into consideration, saying: "The ruling made clear you can’t disqualify a family simply because of their religious beliefs, and you can’t say this one aspect of gender or sexuality beliefs is the paramount factor over everything else, because every child is unique and has all these factors that the state is supposed to take into consideration..."