Aimee Maddonna, a Catholic mother of three, was rejected by Miracle Hill Ministries, a taxpayer-funded foster care agency in South Carolina, solely because she is not "the right kind of Christian." Americans United won’t allow the narrow religious beliefs of a government-funded agency to override the best interest of America’s most vulnerable children or our fundamental principle of religious freedom.

“It was demoralizing to hear we are not good enough because we aren’t the right kind of Christians. It was difficult for my family, of course, but at the end of the day my kids still have parents,” said Aimee Maddonna, AU's plaintiff. “These foster children need and deserve to have someone looking out for them – and the government is taking that away. These children are still in an institution. That isn’t right, it isn’t fair and it isn’t necessary.”

Americans United today led a broad coalition of more than 100 national organizations in denouncing the Trump administration’s recent decision to allow taxpayer-funded foster care agencies in South Carolina to reject any parents or volunteers they deem to be the “wrong” religion.

U.S. Rep. Steve King also has a long history of promoting that movement’s pet ideas. In 2002, while a member of the Iowa legislature, King introduced a bill requiring that public schools teach that the United States derives its strength from 'Christianity, free enterprise capitalism and Western civilization.'