Texas’s Republican Governor Greg Abbott is the devil’s answer to the concept of kindness. As head of a political party that is racist and homophobic and transphobic and misogynist, Gov. Abbott’s job is to place his John Hancock on some rather odious laws. On Thursday, Gov. Abbott did just that, signing House Bill 3859 into law.

HB 3859 enshrines discrimination into Texas law by allowing discrimination in two directions: against prospective parents, and against children in their care. State contractors who provide child welfare services can discriminate against qualified same-sex couples seeking to care for a child in need -- including LGBTQ couples, interfaith couples, single parents, married couples in which one prospective parent has previously been divorced, or other parents to whom the agency has a religious objection. National child welfare organizations such as the Child Welfare League of America, the Donaldson Adoption Institute, North American Council on Adoptable Children and Voice for Adoption have condemned this bill in a letter to lawmakers. This law will most harm children in the system who are awaiting placement in qualified, loving homes and are instead forced to remain in care. Child welfare services should be guided by the overarching principle that guides all family law: all determinations should be in the “best interest of the child.” It isn’t in the best interest of a child to deny them a qualified, loving family simply because that family doesn’t share all of the tenets of the placing agency’s faith.

Texas Republicans have been working overtime, and on God’s Sunday, to work through the ins and outs of how they can discriminate against the LGBTQ families in their state—using God as an excuse. As Think Progress points out, Republicans made sure that the language touches all of the bases they like to touch—for example, reproductive rights.

An also overlooked but potentially dangerous part of the legislation allows providers to “decline to provide, facilitate, or refer a person for abortions, contraceptives, or drugs, devices, or services that are potentially abortion-inducing.” Teenagers living in group homes who need birth control to help with period pain could be refused it. Teenagers in the same situation who find themselves with unwanted pregnancies could also be at risk. The bill will seriously impact teenage girls with living situations that are already difficult. The only thing providers can be penalized for, under HB 3859, is declining to provide someone welfare services on the basis of race. No mention is made of discrimination on the basis of religion, sexual orientation, or gender identity. Child welfare service providers could legally refuse to provide services to families with an LGBTQ member, or families who practice Islam or Judaism, if they can claim “sincerely held religious beliefs” prevent them from doing so.

There’s a reason Jesus hasn’t come back—he doesn’t want anything to do with these yahoos throwing his name around.