The Weekly is a highlight of the work the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission is doing to strengthen you and our churches for God’s glory.

Explainer: New Federal Regulation Would Protect Faith-Based Adoption and Foster-Care

What just happened?

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) proposed a new regulation on Friday, Nov. 1 that will help ensure faith-based organizations can continue serving vulnerable children and families through foster-care and adoption services.

Commenting on the proposed rule, ERLC President Russell Moore said:

“This new regulation from the Trump administration is a welcome signal that the child-welfare system is about the welfare of children—not proxy culture wars. The previous administration's policy change excluded faith-based organizations with convictions about the need for a child to have both a mother and a father. The children in our foster system are facing a crisis, as tens of thousands age out of the program each year. Every American ought to be able to come together to solve this problem. Today’s move is a good start in that direction.”

Why is the rule needed?

Before leaving office in January 2017, President Obama implemented a policy prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation among federal grantees. As a result of the rule, religious-based child welfare providers, such as adoption agencies, were required to abandon their deeply held religious beliefs in order to continue receiving federal funding for their services.

This Week at the ERLC

• Russell Moore spoke at the Museum of the Bible in honor of Thomas Kidd's book Who is an Evangelical? and at the ERLC Academy on the Hill.

• Dan Darling is speaking at the Christian Legal Society National Conference in Chicago and the Neighborly Faith Conference at Wheaton College.

• Andrew T. Walker was a guest on the Acton Institute podcast to talk about Kanye West and conversion.

What You Need to Know

• Is it OK for pastors to preach about religious liberty? Dan Darling says it is and gives three reasons why it’s so important. Find out more here. 

God’s people should pray earnestly and work diligently for religious liberty because this freedom allows space for the Church to do its best work. Freedom and prosperity can lead to a stagnant and sinful church (Rev. 1), but it can also be the catalyst for a worldwide missions movement.

• This Sunday will be recognized by many SBC churches as Widow and Orphan Sunday. Brittany Salmon writes about three ways we can live out this day all year long. Read her article here. 

Orphan and Widow Sunday is a great way for us to align our hearts with the call to practice true religion (James 1:27). But let us guard our hearts against relegating this to one Sunday a year, and let it serve as a reminder that our lives should always be poured out for the sake of the orphan and widow.

• Immigration is a confusing and contested issue. But at the heart of it is the dignity of our fellow human beings who are made in God’s image. So, how can we think biblically about immigration reform? Read part 2 of the series from our D.C. staff here. 

One of the most foundational biblical passages for thinking about public policy is the truth that every human being is made in the image of God (Gen. 1:26). One ramification of this belief as applied to immigration policy is that, since human life is sacred, it should always be protected; that’s one reason that U.S. asylum laws, which guide the government not to send someone back to a situation of danger, are so vital. The notion that immigrants are made in God’s image also should inform the way that we speak about them.

News From Capitol Hill

The ERLC policy team in Washington continues to advocate for a bipartisan repeal of Section 512(a)(7) of the Internal Revenue Code, the parking and transportation tax on nonprofits and houses of worship. A broad coalition of faith-based organizations have engaged on this issue for many months. Here is a refresher of where it stands:

• Are nonprofits and houses of worship really being taxed? The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 contained a provision that requires tax-exempt organizations to file federal income tax returns. This established a new tax that would extract thousands of dollars from houses of worship and nonprofits.
   
• How would the tax affect these organizations? According to a report by the Independent Sector (IS), this tax on employee parking and transportation benefits “will annually divert an average of $12,000 from each nonprofit’s mission.” Over 10 years, it would extract $1.7 billion in taxes from the charitable sector.
   
• Is there a solution? Yes, and thankfully the momentum to repeal the new tax is both bicameral and bipartisan with Republican and Democratic members of the House and the Senate. We hope to see this repeal in November through a tax package or continuing resolution.

ERLC President Russell Moore called for the tax's repeal in a Wall Street Journal opinion editorial last year.

“Churches ought not be seen by the government as untapped sources of tax revenue. While the effect this section of the tax code may very well have been unintended, it must be remedied. As the American founders clearly understood, the power to tax is the power to destroy. The proper separation of the state from the church is at the heart of our American project. This section of the tax code, however, blurs those lines in harmful ways.”

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From The Public Square

Federal judge blocks Alabama's tough abortion law
Associated Press

A federal judge blocked an Alabama abortion ban Tuesday that would have made the procedure a felony at any stage of pregnancy in almost all cases.

China frees Christian prisoner amid ongoing persecution
Diana Chandler, Baptist Press

China has freed an imprisoned Christian but continues a reign of persecution including church demolitions and restrictions barring foreign students from worship, religious liberty advocates reported.

Poor kids spend nearly 2 hours more on screens each day than rich kids
Rani Molla, Recode

Kids from more affluent families have more access to tech but use it less.

Have 1 in 5 Americans Been in a Consensual Non-Monogamous Relationship?Charles Fain Lehman, Institute for Family Studies

By their 30s, most Americans (80%) are either happily married or sadly single, with little evidence that "alternative" structures are filling the gap.