Mark Silk’s Spiritual Politics Blog / Religion News Service
This story in its entirety is available on the Religion News Service website. An excerpt is below.
Last week, 90 organizations on the separationist side of church-state politics asked Attorney General Eric Holder to renounce the Bush Administration’s position that faith-based organizations (FBOs) can discriminate religiously in hiring for government-funded programs. What provoked the request was discovery of a Department of Justice (DOJ) memo in which the Obama Administration for the first time declares the Bush position to be federal policy.
Issued on April 9, the memo. from the Office of Civil Rights (OCR), consists of answers to a set of frequently asked questions concerning the nondiscrimination provision in last year’s reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act. It explains that, as per a 2007 Bush DOJ memo, FBOs “may prefer co-religionists for employees in programs funded by covered grants” under certain conditions — an exemption from anti-discrimination law assertedly authorized by the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
The 90 signatories — who include mainline Protestant denominations, non-Orthodox Jewish groups, and civil rights and gay rights organizations — want Holder to withdraw the Bush memo. “We just don’t see how you can justify that for government-funded positions,” said Hollyn Hollman, general counsel for the Baptist Joint Committee.
