Trump Appeals to Bible in Foster Care Policy Rollout
Leave it to President Trump to find the economic angle in what many have seen as a social or moral issue, converting a stagnant policy front into an all-around win. In partnership with his wife Melania, President Donald Trump issued an executive order Thursday to “harness Federal support, technology, and strategic partnerships to provide young Americans in or transitioning out of the foster care system with the tools they need to become successful adults.” Yet not everyone was happy with Trump’s order.
“Children often stay in foster care for years, and those who transition out due to age frequently face uncertain futures without the support systems essential to educational, career, and relational success,” explained the order, titled “Fostering the Future of American Children and Families.” Empowering foster children to become successful adults means more American workers productively contributing to the economy.
“We have a problem lately of neglecting our most vulnerable children in the country,” argued Moms for Liberty CEO Tina Descovich on “Washington Watch.” “It really came to light during COVID when we put children in the back seat, basically kept schools closed, listening to special interest groups,” she said. “Another area of society that has been neglected over the last several decades are children in foster care. … Only 50% of foster kids actually graduate high school, and only 3% go on to earn a degree.”
One factor contributing to this problem is a shortage of qualified families that will love and nurture foster children, spurring them on to excel. In spite of this shortage, “a lot of states … are very hesitant at best when it comes to placing children with Christians,” observed FRC Senior Fellow Jody Hice.
“States like Colorado and California, they say this is an LGBTQ rights issue,” Descovich agreed. “If you are a Christian … and you are raising your children with biblical principles, they say it’s a conflict to put a child in your home, if you do not affirm transgender children.” Such hostility, from “what we’ve been seeing in America lately, it’s been reserved for Christians,” she added.
Trump’s executive order noticed this foolish policy and applied a remedy. “Some jurisdictions and organizations maintain policies that discourage or prohibit qualified families from serving children in need as foster and adoptive parents because of their sincerely-held religious beliefs or adherence to basic biological truths,” the order stated. Those “basic biological truths” include the fact that there are only two immutable sexes.
In response, Trump directed the Health and Human Services Secretary to “take appropriate action to address State and local policies and practices that inappropriately prohibit participation in federally-funded child-welfare programs by qualified individuals or organizations based upon their sincerely-held religious beliefs or moral convictions” and “take appropriate action to increase partnerships between agencies and faith-based organizations and houses of worship to serve families whose children have been placed in foster care or are at risk of being placed in foster care.”
“Of course, you have to prayerfully consider it before you bring anyone into your home,” Descovich cautioned, but she encouraged Christian families with the means to do so to prayerfully consider fostering a child.
Although known as a transactional businessman, President Trump struck a striking moral note when announcing his foster care order. At a White House event Thursday, President Trump read from prepared remarks, “The Bible tells us that one of the measures of any society is how it cares for vulnerable children and orphans.” He then added impromptu emphasis, “so important, and it’s so big in the Bible,” before returning to the text “so as we Make America Great Again, we are going to protect American children in foster care.”
Critics complained that this statement is found nowhere in the Bible, but such pedantry overlooks the fact that Trump was making a summary statement.
Scripture does emphasize the importance of caring for vulnerable groups like orphans and widows (and sojourners). There are declarations that God watches over orphans (Deuteronomy 10:18; Psalm 68:5, 146:9), prohibitions on treating them unjustly (Exodus 22:22; Deuteronomy 24:17; Psalm 82:3; Isaiah 1:17; Zechariah 7:10), and welfare provisions to feed them (Deuteronomy 24:19-21, 26:12). These statements, especially in the Mosaic law, constitute a type of social justice far more worthy of the name than the Marxist radicalism that currently claims that label.
Yet this care for orphans is not limited to ancient Israel. Even in the New Testament, James writes, “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world” (James 1:27).
Thus, Trump was right that the Bible stresses care for orphans and, by extension, children in foster care (although calling a “measure of a society” seems to import a different quote, attributed to figures as diverse as Jimmy Carter, Ghandi, and Hubert Humphrey).
However, the more important comment is that Trump made this summary statement about Scripture in the first place, because it seems highly unlikely that Trump reached this conclusion on his own. Noticing the stress placed on caring for orphans is the sort of observation a person makes on his second or third read-through of the Bible, especially the Pentateuch, and especially Deuteronomy (see references above). Little about President Trump leads one to believe he is one of the small fraction of Americans who have done so.
However, Trump’s use of this summary statement does suggest that he has advisors (and speechwriters) who know the Bible on more than a surface level. For instance, Cabinet Secretary (of Housing and Urban Development) Scott Turner is an evangelical Christian who has led Cabinet meetings in prayer. At least one member of Trump’s speechwriting office holds an M.Div. from a conservative seminary. Such biblical awareness apparently informs Trump’s speeches, and even his policy decisions — like this foster care order.
This is not to criticize President Trump. As much as I wish him to believe in Jesus — for the sake of his own soul —reliance on godly counselors also commends a leader. As Solomon said, “Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety” (Proverbs 11:14). Or again, “A wise man is full of strength, and a man of knowledge enhances his might, for by wise guidance you can wage your war, and in abundance of counselors there is victory” (Proverbs 24:5-6). When President Trump listens to wise advisors, he makes wiser decisions than he would make by his own reason alone.
With regard to foster children in particular, President Trump seems to have struck the right note, at least insofar as the federal government plays a role.
“In my opinion, there’s nothing more beautiful you can do than take on a foster child and raise them and nurture them,” declared Descovich. “I grew up in a home with a single mother. … I did not grow up in the foster care system, but I absolutely needed other adults in my life to help me be successful.” She would have dropped out of high school not for parents of her friends who drove her to excel, drove her to the SAT, and even paid for her to take it. “And if caring, loving adults didn’t step in in my life at that time, who knows where I would be today?”