Potential Changes to Funding Available to Religious Charities

The Washington Post reported that nearly 60 groups concernedwith civil rights, labor, health and education urged Attorney General Eric H.Holder Jr. last Thursday to renounce a Bush-era memo allowing religiouscharities that receive federal grant money to discriminate in hiring.

The 2007 memo by the Bush Justice Department’s Office ofLegal Counsel permits the government to bypass laws against giving taxpayermoney to groups that refuse to employ people of other faiths.  The Bush administration had first askedCongress to change the anti-discrimination restrictions as part of its so-called“faith-based” initiative.  The memo waspublished in response to Congressional pushback.

The New York Times reports that the memo said governmentofficials could choose to disregard such restrictions because of the 1993Religious Freedom Restoration Act. That Act permits some exceptions tofederal laws if obeying them would impose a “substantial burden” on people’sability to freely exercise their religion. The memo argues that the Act can override statutes that require recipients of taxpayer aid not to discriminatewith that money.  In accordance with the memo, for example, the Christian charity,

WorldVision toreceive a $1.5 million grant to prevent juvenile delinquency.  The civil rights groups argue that the memojeopardizes civil rights and religious liberty. WorldVision responds that interference with its hiring practices will damageits identity and its mission. 

SS