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There was a question on one of the forums asking if you have to be religious to adopt. The simple answer is no.
When workers meet with and interview parents, they ask many questions about your family, your home, your marriage, and yes, about religion. The question is not to screen out parents who are not “religious” but instead to gather an idea about what your life is like, the things that are important to you, what the child can expect and what activities your child might be involved in.
For some children their faith is something that is very important to them. While reading profiles on children in the Fostering Families magazine, there was a teen girl who specifically said that she wanted a family who would allow her to be active in her Baptist faith. Placing her in a home that will not honor that will set the placement up to fail.
In other cases, the family is very active in their faith. Our family is one of those. My husband teaches confirmation, we have taught Sunday school, our children attend Sunday school, my husband and I attend a monthly faith discussion group and so on. We spend several days a week at our church. A child who is against church will not enjoy being in our family or participating in the activities that we do.
If you do not have a religious affiliation, one question that may be asked is if you are willing to allow a child to continue with religious activities if this is requested. Some of our kids may have attended church with extended family members and count that as one of their good memories.
In other cases it may be a matter of placing a child in your home that does not have the same faith or upbringing as your faith. If social services is considering placing a child in your home that has a Jewish faith and your family is Christian, or vice versa, this may be an issue. Your worker will want to make sure that you are willing to respect the child’s feeling and wishes.
For these reasons, it is necessary that your worker asks you about your faith, your religious upbringing and other questions regarding your church affiliation.
Faith alone does not qualify you to be a good parent, or a better parent to a child with a difficult history. If that were all it took, there would be many children who never had another issue in their lives. Do not be intimidated by these questions.
