LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A long-running legal battle over taxpayer funding of a Baptist children’s home in Kentucky may have ended with a March 12 settlement of a 13-year-old lawsuit filed by Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
Kentucky’s government agreed to change its child-care system to ensure that faith-based groups that contract with the state do not pressure children in their care to participate in religious services and that they give religious materials only to those who want them.
The dispute started in 1998 when Kentucky Baptist Homes for Children (KBHC) — now known as Sunrise Children’s Services — fired a therapist and residential counselor named Alicia Pedreira after discovering that she was a lesbian.
Along with protecting against religious coercion, the settlement requires that prior to placing a child with a religiously affiliated child-care agency or foster home, the state will inform children and parents of the provider’s religious affiliation.
But Sunrise Children’s Services released a statement describing Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the ACLU’s declaration of victory as “premature.”
“Recent rulings by the Supreme Court and federal appeals courts make it absolutely clear that a government may provide benefits to faith-based entities without violating the Establishment Clause if the benefits are available to secular and religious entities alike,” said John Sheller, Sunrise’s attorney.
Sunrise is an agency of the Kentucky Baptist Convention (KBC). KBC Executive Director Paul Chitwood supported the ministry in opposing the settlement.
“The time for Kentucky Baptists to rally behind Sunrise Children’s Services through prayer, financial support and by becoming foster parents is now,” Chitwood said in a statement.
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