S.B. 375 “Keep Faith in Adoption”
Radio Commentary, 90.7, 91.7 New Life FM, March 2, 2018 – By Sue Ella Deadwyler
Since it’s a good day when a good bill makes progress in the General Assembly, I declare February 23rd to have been a great day for adoption in this state. That was the day the Georgia Senate voted 45 to 19 to pass Senator Ligon’s S.B. 375. But, I’m amazed that 19 senators voted against the right of adoption agencies to exercise freedom of religion when deciding which place is best for a child.
That vote made me wonder who voted against it. So, I went online and printed the February 21st machine vote for S.B. 375. By comparing the votes with a list of Senate Republicans and Democrats, I learned that it was a straight party-line vote. The two Republicans who did not vote had been excused.
In last week’s commentary I used two quotes from S.B. 375, and they’re so important, I’m using them again. The first quote was from a 1969 U.S. Supreme Court decision that stated: “Neither students nor teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.” The other quote reminded us that “[p]rivate religious speech is as fully protected under the Free Speech Clause as secular private expression.” Clearly, there’s no constitutional right for secular belief to supersede religious belief, in public or in private.Granted, the first statement applied to schools and the second statement applies to equal constitutional protection for both religious expression and secular expression, wherever it is. However, since neither secular speech nor religious speech is protected less than the other, how can senators vote against the free exercise of religion whether it’s in school, in public, in private, or in adoption cases?
S.B. 375 is half through the legislative process, but time is short. Since Monday is the 30thday of the 40-day session, S.B. 375 must pass the Judiciary committee and the Rules committee before the full House can vote on it.
Therefore, the House must move quickly if S.B. 375 is to pass this session. Call Judiciary Committee chairman Willard at 404 656-5125 and ask him to pass it out of committee as soon as possible. Children need homes that reflect good moral standards. If S.B. 375 fails to pass, faith-based adoption agencies are likely to lose their right to place children in homes that uphold biblical doctrine. For Georgia Insight I’m Sue Ella Deadwyler, your Capitol correspondent.