As 2020 came to a close, Religion News Service asked scholars, faith leaders, activists and other experts to reflect on some of the issues they’ve seen on the religious landscape and what they anticipate for 2021. Professor Robin Fretwell Wilson's prediction focused on the future of foster children; her statement has been re-printed below:

"America is at its best when it protects the least among us. As 2020 closes, we face a singular, pressing challenge: how to take children out of the culture war. This term, the U.S. Supreme Court will decide Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, in which the city of Philadelphia stripped a religious foster care agency of its ability to place children in families unless they would swear to place children in all families, including LGBTQ families. Ironically, the agency had not declined to serve any family. To be sure, being turned away from an agency is a deep wound. My parents would have walked away and never adopted my sister and me. Equally certain, we need every agency doing their important work because 423,997 children need homes right now. We need every hand on deck. Litigation offers only win-lose answers. But we can neither afford loving couples to be turned away, nor can we afford to shutter agencies that do this important work. Congress can reform our antiquated funding system so these needless clashes do not harm children. As a divided nation, we have countless challenges. Yet the measure of a decent and good society is how we treat our children. Certainly, we can take children out of this culture war."

Read the full article at religionnews.com.