Children across America are in dire need of a loving family. Jessica Bates is a devout Christian and mother who wanted to adopt a child into her loving family. Shockingly, she was discriminated against for her faith. The state of Oregon rejected her application to adopt because of her Christian views regarding gender and sexuality. Join us as we speak with Jessica and her attorney Johannes Widmalm-Delphonse about the discrimination she experienced.
Resources
As secular forces chip away at our nation’s Judeo-Christian roots, religious freedom is increasingly threatened. Yet the First Amendment continues to reflect the Founders’ belief that “[t]he Religion…of every man must be left to the conviction and conscience of every man; and it is the right of every man to exercise [religion] as [conviction and conscience] dictate.”
Alliance Defending Freedom defends religious freedom and opposes all attempts to compel people to compromise their beliefs or retreat from civil and political life as the price for following their faith.
Guests
Jessica Bates is a widowed mother of 5 children living in eastern Oregon. After listening to a Christian radio broadcast about adoption, Jessica felt called through her Christian faith to care for children without homes. In March of 2022, Jessica started the adoption application process through the state of Oregon’s Department of Human Services.
According to Oregon Department of Human Services rules, those seeking to adopt must be willing to adopt the state’s radical views on gender and sexuality to have a child placed in their home. Jessica expressed her issues of conscience from the training, and after this she was informed on September 22, 2022, that she was ineligible to adopt because of her religious beliefs. Jessica received an official denial letter on November 22, 2022.
Jessica has now filed a lawsuit against the state of Oregon for discriminating against her religious beliefs and denying her any chance at adopting a child through the state of Oregon.
Johannes Widmalm-Delphonse serves as legal counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom, where he is a member of the Center for Conscience Initiatives.
Widmalm-Delphonse earned his J.D. from Harvard Law School in 2014. He obtained his B.A., with distinction, in Political Science, from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He is a member of state bars of Minnesota, Illinois, and Virginia.
Leave a Reply