Family · Nationwide · October 5, 2026
SCOTUS Opens Term With Cases on Religious Funding and Parental Rights
The U.S. Supreme Court opened its new term Monday, Oct. 5, with a docket that includes two cases of direct interest to Christian families and institutions, according to World News Group (WORLD). In St. Mary Catholic Parish v. Roy, Colorado created a state-funded universal preschool program open to private providers, then conditioned funding on compliance with the state's views on sexual orientation and gender identity, effectively excluding most religious preschools. The 10th Circuit upheld Colorado's approach, but the Supreme Court's decision to hear the case follows its prior rulings in Trinity Lutheran, Espinoza, and Carson v. Makin, which barred states from excluding religious organizations from general public benefits. Separately, in International Partners for Ethical Care v. Ferguson, the Court will weigh whether parents have standing to challenge a Washington law permitting youth shelters to notify the state—rather than parents—when a runaway minor seeks so-called gender-affirming drugs or surgery. Lower courts had denied parents standing to sue.
Source: wng.org
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Why Bible-Believing Christians Should Care
Both cases test whether states can use funding conditions or bureaucratic workarounds to override the First Amendment rights of religious institutions and the authority of parents over their own children. Colorado's preschool program shows a state using money, not open hostility, to force Christian institutions to abandon biblical convictions on sex and gender in order to participate in a public benefit. Washington's youth-shelter law shows the state positioning itself, not parents, as the first authority over a minor's body and medical care. Christians should recognize both as examples of government agencies redefining who holds authority over children and conscience—authority Scripture assigns first to parents and to the free exercise of faith, not to the state.
And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. — Ephesians 6:4
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From the book
Most policies currently threatening religious liberty and parental rights were never passed by Congress or by a state legislature. They were enacted by career officials interpreting vague statutes in ways that granted themselves new powers. Activists use Rule 4 to pressure agencies, arguing that broad terms already in existing law, words like safety or non-discrimination, mandate radical new enforcement. The result is a fundamental transformation of society without a single vote being cast. This is not a conspiracy. It is the structural reality of how a permanent bureaucracy behaves once it has been captured.
— Chapter 20, “The Strategic Terrain: The Administrative State”
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