Gov. Matt Bevin has appointed an executive with Louisville's Southern Baptist Theological Seminary as his "adoption czar," awarding him a $240,000-a-year contract to lead reforms of Kentucky's child adoption and foster care system.

The appointment of Daniel S. Dumas, a senior vice president with the Baptist seminary, professor of Christian ministry and an adoptive father of two, drew praise from Kentucky Youth Advocates, whose executive director, Terry Brooks, thanked Bevin for his "commitment to children and families" by creating the job.

"This position carries real potential as a catalyst for change," Brooks said.

But Dumas' appointment is drawing fire from critics — because of the salary one lawmaker called "exorbitant" and his apparent lack of experience in child welfare. Some also worry that the seminary's unyielding stance that homosexuality is a sin could affect Dumas' attitude toward gay adults as prospective foster and adoptive parents.

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"How inappropriate," said Chris Hartman, director of the Fairness Campaign, which advocates for lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender causes. "The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary is the most virulently anti-LGBT institution in the state."

Charles Baker, a retired executive with a Kentucky Presbyterian child welfare agency, said he's concerned about Dumas' seeming lack of social service or child welfare experience. Dumas holds a master's of divinity degree from The Master's Seminary, based in Los Angeles and a bachelor's degree from Criswell College, a Baptist school in Dallas and worked as a pastor before joining the seminary in 2007.

"Child welfare, even adoptions and foster care, they are very complicated fields," Baker said.

But Bevin, in his news release, said Dumas is well-equipped for the job, citing his leadership at the seminary, his work as a professor and author and experience as a Navy veteran.

"We have to rethink the way we do foster care in this state, and Dan Dumas is just the visionary to help lead that charge," he said. "

Related:Bevin on foster care: 'We've got to rethink the entire process'

Dumas did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent to his seminary email address Wednesday.

Seminary President Albert Mohler praised Dumas' service at the school in a news release and said Dumas will remain involved with the seminary as a special assistant to the president. Mohler said he expects Dumas to "make a great contribution" in his new role.

"The Christian faith puts a great priority upon taking care of the vulnerable—and children especially," Mohler said.

But State Rep. Tom Burch, a Louisville Democrat who has long lobbied for better pay and working conditions for state social workers, criticized Dumas' salary as "exorbitant," noting that social workers for the state Cabinet for Health and Family Services start at about $33,670 a year. Dumas' contract would cover salaries of up to seven state social workers at a time when Kentucky is suffering an acute shortage of such employees, he said.

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The one-year contract with Red Buffalo Ventures, Dumas' consulting company, is renewable for two years. It exceeds the salary of Bevin, who is paid $142,970 per year and that of Vickie Yates Brown Glisson, the health services secretary, who is paid $160,973 a year.

It also provides for "performance incentives" to be awarded by the governor not to exceed 20 percent of base pay.

Under the contract, which is effective June 19, Dumas will report directly to the governor and will have an office at the state Capitol as well as at the cabinet, and will have a laptop computer, cell phone and state vehicle for official use.

Burch questioned Dumas' attitudes toward prospective gay couples as foster or adoptive parents, given the seminary' stance that any sexual relationship outside marriage between a man and woman is sinful. Burch said gay adults across Kentucky are an essential part of the state's foster and adoptive network.

More:Bevin on foster care: 'We've got to rethink the entire process'

"The cabinet told me years ago that if it wasn't for the gay community, a lot of these kids would never be adopted," Burch said.

Rev. Joe Phelps, pastor of Highland Baptist Church, who has been critical of the seminary's stance against homosexuality, said he too is concerned.

"Since he is a Baptist, I hope Mr. Dumas advocates for separation of church and state," said Phelps, whose church split from the Southern Baptist Convention over doctrinal differences including gay marriage. "It is crucial that he refrain from injecting Southern Baptists’ ideology into the state's foster and adoption process."

In a news release, Dumas said he looks forward to leading reforms of Kentucky's foster and adoptive system.

"I am resolved to make our adoption and foster care system faster, safer, more affordable and more accessible," he said.

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The appointment fulfills a pledge Bevin made in January in his State of the Commonwealth speech to name a "czar" to oversee adoption and foster care reform, one of his top priorities. Bevin and his wife, Glenna, have nine children, four of them adopted.

Bevin, in the news release, praised Dumas as a "servant leader" whose leadership experience will help him "cut through the red tape" keeping so many of the 8,000 children removed from their homes because of abuse or neglect from adoption.

Dumas was hired in 2007 at the Louisville seminary as senior vice president for institutional advancement, according to a news release issued by the seminary. He previously had served as executive pastor at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California and at other pastoral jobs around the country, it said.

Contact reporter Deborah Yetter at 502-582-4228 or at dyetter@courier-journal.com.