Dear Sir/Madame:

Faith Based Adoption agencies should not be excluded from providing needed family services to the  Commonwealth of Virginia.   To discriminate against these agencies based upon faith or religion ignores the great value there are to thousands of children in the Commonwealth.   

Many cultures, for thousands of years, have recognized the optimal enviornment for raising children consists of  a father and a mother. The love demonstrated by a father and mother cannnot be replicated by two parents of the same sex.  Moreover, the masculine and femine identity of each parent complements the raising of children. To believe otherwise contradicts this core value of Western Civilization.   

If you are truely concerned about the welfare of the children you will try to insure they grow up in a familty with a father and mother (male and female).  As children are conceived by a male and female,  shouldn't they be raised by them?  To do otherwise goes agaist the laws of nature.  (Faith does not even need to enter into this equation.)  

I ask you retain the services of faith based adoption agencies, which continue to provide essential services for children. Do  not practice a policy of exclusion, but rather one of inclusion. Keep the Faith (based agencies)!    

Sincerely,

Kevin F. O'Neill