Written by Don Byrd
Today the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty joined 68 [UPDATED: now 98] other civil and religious liberty advocates in calling on President Obama not to include a religious exemption in an upcoming hiring discrimination order. “When a religiously affiliated organization makes the decision to request a taxpayer-funded contract with the federal government,” the coalition’s letter to the President says, “it must play by the same rules as every other federal contractor.”
The President is expected soon to sign an Executive Order barring federal contractors from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation in hiring using federal funds. Unfortunately, he is being urged by many to insert a broad exemption for contractors that are religious organizations. Those groups want to have it both ways: they want public money to fund their services in one hand, while the other hand brushes aside government regulations that seek to protect the public.
Today’s letter argues with clarity that such a demand both insults the taxpayer and undermines the religious organization’s autonomy. No religious organization hiring employees with taxpayer funds should be exempt from nondiscrimination laws in the use of those funds.
Here is an excerpt (my emphasis):
All of our organizations have worked to preserve traditional safeguards that protect civil rights and religious liberty when government partners with religiously affiliated organizations—safeguards we defend for the good of both religion and government.
Religious freedom is one of our most cherished values, a fundamental and defining feature of our national character. It guarantees us the freedom to hold any belief we choose and the right to act on our religious beliefs within certain limits. It does not, however, provide organizations the right to discriminate using taxpayer dollars. . . .
If an organization requests and receives government funding, it should not be allowed to discriminate against qualified job applicants based on who they are or what their religious beliefs may be. Yet, exempting religiously affiliated organizations that contract with the federal government from prohibitions on discrimination by federal contractors would do just that.
The letter is in many ways a follow-up to one sent to the Attorney General just last month, urging him to reverse a flawed Justice Department reading of RFRA as overriding federal non-discrimination laws. Today’s letter, in addition to asking the President to reject calls for a religious exemption here, also renews the push for that Bush-era approach to be rescinded once and for all.
