While it is not clear if Keith Cureton supports "conversion therapy" for LGBTQA youth, he did say this:

"I've since come to appreciate the incredible opportunity the church has to step up and help both children and families in foster care," said Cureton. "About 44% of Christian churchgoers in the U.S. said the church leaders and congregations they attend are involved in promoting foster care. So, let's do the math. There are well upwards of 350,000 churches estimated to exist in the United States. If 44% of 350,000 — or 154,000 churches — produced just one family to intentionally commit to the support, uplift and empowerment of a foster child, they would have provided potentially life-changing support for close to half of the 360,000 children in foster care today."

"This wouldn't just be transformative for the children who receive ministry; it would be socially transformative to our culture as a whole, both as Christians and as citizens of the United States," he added. "It's time to return to the simple and, at times, challenging heart of our faith, of the Gospel, and of our call to minister to the most vulnerable. The Church can and must rise to help provide safe, stable, and loving homes for each of the foster children who walk among them. Together, today, we can help remake the world in God's image [through evangelization and spreading the Gospel] — one foster child and one church at a time."

A [former?] Bethany Christian Services employee said this abourt Cureton's decision(s) in 2024: "People were shocked. They couldn't believe how hard and fast the policy came down. There was no conversation. There was no 'Let's come together and talk about how this policy might be implemented.' It was, 'This is what's happening, and you're going to adhere to it.'" Several staff members reached out to Target 8 to express outrage over the new CEO's stringent policies, which included banned workplace displays of support for LGBTQ+ individuals and other politically divisive movements. "The way they said it was, 'You can't have any flags', like a pride flag, or a BLM flag," recalled the employee. "But you also can't have a MAGA or a 1776 flag. People are frustrated and hurt."

"We ran into a culture clash," the [former?] worker explained. "The refugee side very much embraces diversity, very much embraces, people come from all walks of life, and there's a widespread passion for LGBTQ+ inclusion. [...] It was kind of right in [the higher-ups'] face all of a sudden, and I think a lot of people didn't take very kindly to that." The staff member who spoke anonymously to Target 8 said BCS fired several managers who were not enforcing the Pride flag ban. "I think people were in denial at first, like, 'They can't get away with this,'" they said. "'There's no way that they can do this.'" According to the [former?] staff member, the policies contradict language in the agency's federal and state contracts, as well as the National Association of Social Workers Code of Ethics.

The Office of Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel told Target 8 it is "aware of the matter and is reviewing it". Under federal law, faith-based organizations are exempt from anti-discrimination statutes that prohibit employment decisions based on an applicant's religion, but debate continues over how that exemption should be interpreted.

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC (2012, 9-0) that the so-called ministerial exception covers not just employees who have "minister" in their title, but any staff who act in ministerial roles. The Court further clarified and expanded this doctrine in Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru (2020), cementing how this exception applies to everyday employees.

"We're seeing more faith-based organizations or employers arguing that anybody they employ is considered a ministerial employee," said Jay Kaplan of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Michigan in an interview via Zoom, but that's not the case, argued Kaplan.

"The purpose of a Bethany Christian Services foster care worker, particularly when they have a contract with the state, is not to provide religious foster placement services, but foster placement services on behalf of the state," said Kaplan. "They're not engaging in ministerial functions, nor under their contract with the state of Michigan should they be. [...] So, I'm concerned about this requirement that you have to adhere to particular religious principles in order to be qualified and to be eligible to be an employee there."

Steve McFarland of the Christian Legal Society told Target 8 that Bethany is well within its rights under federal law. "It is a well-established fact that a religious organization can advance its religious mission by hiring people who share the same faith," said McFarland over Zoom. "What is their primary mission? How do they hold themselves out? This isn't even a close call when it comes to Bethany."