Sawyer, Clippard meet with Blunt on homosexual foster care
JEFFERSON CITY – Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC) Executive Director David Clippard and MBC President Ralph Sawyer met with Gov. Matt Blunt July 12 to discuss the issue of homosexual foster care.
Blunt, a Southern Baptist, assured the two statewide leaders of his denomination that he is with them on the biblical doctrine that marriage is for one man and one woman. He also promised prompt action in support of a new Department of Social Services rule to address recent legal and legislative developments that have combined to create a seemingly friendlier climate toward homosexuals participating in the state’s foster care system. Clippard and Sawyer were both pleased to hear the governor’s words.
“We both walked away really encouraged, and even more so encouraged when the next day they had already developed their strategy,” Clippard said.
“There’s an existing law that provides for people to be licensed as foster care parents and adoptive parents, and so they will abide by that law. But just because you’re a license holder doesn’t mean you’re going to get placed—that you’re going to get a child.”
An emergency rule to rescind old policy and enact new policy that is purported to be in favor of traditional, or biblically married, couples as foster parents went into effect Aug. 4. It involves various criteria including lifestyles and practices of the license holders, including sexual orientation. The effectiveness of the new rule by the Children’s Division of the Department of Social Services is open to interpretation, according to MBC Lobbyist Kerry Messer of the Christian Life Commission.
“We welcome the governor’s work on this matter, but the agency’s response through the new emergency rule is inadequate to solve the current problem of homosexual foster parents,” Messer said.