In a move that shocks no one, a coalition of religious organizations has voiced disapproval of proposed laws that will make it more difficult for them to get gobs of money from the government while refusing to hire anyone who doesn’t have the same invisible friend.
More than 100 religion-based organizations are protesting a provision in pending legislation that would prohibit them from receiving federal money if they consider a job applicant’s religion when hiring.
In a letter sent Wednesday to all members of Congress, the groups contend that the provision would dilute protections they have under the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, as well as under the Constitution.
“Those four lines in the legislation would be a seismic change in bedrock civil rights law for religious organizations,” said Steven McFarland, chief legal counsel at World Vision USA, a Christian aid organization that is leading the protest. “The impact would be huge and severely affect our ability to help children and others in need.”
The provision is in legislation to reauthorize the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, which makes grants to nonprofit social service organizations.
When the government gives money to charitable organizations, they are acknowledging that those organizations already have infrastructure set up that puts them in a good position to administer aid. Essentially, the government is hiring these organizations to act on its behalf to do its work — similar to hiring contractors. And guess what? The branches of our government, and the contractors they hire, are not allowed to discriminate in hiring.
What Steven McFarland and the rest of his coalition seem to miss here is that this legislation would not “severely affect [their] ability to help children and others in need.” It would severely affect their ability to make sure that only people of their special little club are the ones doing the helping. If your mission is really about charity, why should you care? If you do care … it makes it pretty clear that caring about people in need is not actually your focus.
(Reminds me of this story at Friendly Atheist a few weeks ago, about a food bank in New Zealand that was short-staffed because they were turning away atheist volunteers, since “the aim was to increase church involvement” and atheists wouldn’t help that.)
Religious organizations are allowed to choose to hire only people who believe in their religion. They just can’t use government funds to do that. What is so hard to understand about this?
TaiChi on 
