Among the religious freedom bills that Congress may consider in its 114^th Session is the Marriage and Religious Freedom Act (HR 3133/S 1808 in the previous session) and the Child Welfare Provider Inclusion Act (HR 5285/S 2706 in the previous session).

The Marriage and Religious Freedom Act is designed to protect from federal penalties persons and organizations who regard marriage to be a man-woman union. The intent is to make the federal government protect, rather than, penalize those people and organizations, even though the federal government increasingly declares its support for “marriage equality.”

When the federal government facilitates in its programs and operations the recognition of same-sex marriage, it should not do so in a way that forces dissenters to act as if they, too, believe that same-sex and opposite-sex marriages are the same kind of relationship. The bill would keep the government from using its authority in areas such as grants, tax status, licensing, and accreditation to elevate supporters of same-sex marriage over adherents of historic marriage.

The Child Welfare Provider Inclusion Act takes up a specialized issue in the area of LGBT equality and religious freedom. States receive federal dollars to support their adoption and foster care services, which partner with private agencies to help recruit families and make placement decisions.

Some states and cities have written their sexual-orientation and same-sex marriage laws, or their adoption and foster care rules, in such a way that only private agencies that promise to treat all couples and individuals uniformly—LGBT or heterosexual; married or cohabiting—are permitted to provide adoption and foster-care services. A bill that appeared in several previous Congresses would have made this faux-equality a federal requirement accompanying the federal dollars down to state governments.

The proposed inclusion bill would reverse the action: state adoption and foster care departments that receive federal funding (as they all do) must respect the religious freedom of faith-based providers, meaning their freedom to use their religion-shaped assessment about how best to serve children and families. Protecting them protects religious freedom, and also keeps diversity in the child welfare system, because many other agencies are more than glad to help LGBT adoptions.