In an editorial yesterday, the NYTimes offered modest praise to the faith-based partnership changes established by President Obama's Executive Order last week, but had some strong words of criticism for the issues that were left unaddressed.
Ignoring one of Mr. Obama’s own important campaign promises, and a large coalition of religious, education and civil rights groups, the new decree fails to draw a firm line barring employment discrimination on the basis of religion. The order leaves untouched a 2007 Justice Department memo that dubiously concluded that the government cannot order religious groups not to discriminate as a condition of federal financing. That memo should have been withdrawn long ago by this administration.
Missing, too, from the new decree are any standards to govern the Justice Department’s promised “case-by-case” review of employment practices by religiously affiliated grantees. It remains unclear how many such reviews have been conducted since Mr. Obama took office, and whether groups that engage in religion-based discrimination are in any real jeopardy of losing money.
The remark about the Justice Department memo from 2007 is especially warranted, and important – an error that could quickly be rectified, yet remains without explanation. Here's hoping that more reforms of the faith-based initiative are still on the way.
