Welcome to the church-state battlefield, President Barack Obama.<\/p>\n
Consider this hypothetical landmine: Would it be discrimination for a Christian AIDS hospice to refuse to hire a worker who believes AIDS is a sign of God\u2019s wrath?<\/p>\n
Ponder these scenarios. Can a Muslim school fire a teacher who converts to Christianity? Can a Jewish pre-school discriminate against a job applicant who is active in Jews for Jesus?<\/p>\n
Wait, there\u2019s more. Is it job discrimination for an evangelical shelter for parents and children to refuse to hire someone who rejects centuries of Christian teachings on sex and marriage? How about forcing a Catholic hospital to hire doctors and nurses who reject the church\u2019s doctrines on abortion?<\/p>\n
These are the kinds of questions swirling around the White House as Obama tries to find a way to embrace a wide variety of religious groups and the faith-based ministries they operate \u2014 while rejecting some of the ancient doctrines that guide their work.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no doubt that the very nature of faith means that some of our beliefs will never be the same,\u201d said Obama, at the National Prayer Breakfast in which he promoted his Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. \u201cWe read from different texts. We follow different edicts. We subscribe to different accounts of how we came to be here and where we\u2019re going next \u2014 and some subscribe to no faith at all.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut no matter what we choose to believe, let us remember that there is no religion whose central tenet is hate. There is no God who condones taking the life of an innocent human being.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then, citing a variety of faith traditions, he said one law can bring unity, which is \u201cthe Golden Rule \u2014 the call to love one another; to understand one another; to treat with dignity and respect those with whom we share a brief moment on this Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n
The audience said, \u201camen.\u201d But church-state lawyers and packs of social activists began murmuring about the details. There are, after all, secular and religious groups that believe President George W. Bush\u2019s team erred when it allowed many faith-based ministries to receive government funds, while hiring only employees who affirmed their doctrines and mission statements.<\/p>\n
These tensions remain, because Obama has decided \u2014 for now \u2014 to allow this practice to continue, while stressing that the Justice Department will review complaints on a case-by-case basis.<\/p>\n
The ground is moving. For decades, a guiding principle of church-state law has been that state officials must avoid becoming \u201centangled\u201d in doctrinal questions that allow the government to favor some faith groups over others.<\/p>\n
In his prayer breakfast speech, the president said his initiative would not \u201cfavor one religious group over another \u2014 or even religious groups over secular groups.\u201d But will some ministries get to hire according to their doctrines, while others will not, with the government separating the sheep from the goats?<\/p>\n
\u201cI really don\u2019t have a clue\u201d what the case-by-case language means, said Stanley Carlson-Thies, who worked with the Bush White House and now leads the Institutional Religious Freedom Alliance. \u201cI think they are trying to get out of the fix they\u2019re in. Obama\u2019s people have told so many religious groups that they\u2019re not going to hurt what they do. Yet they have also told groups on the other side, \u2018Of course we stand with you. This is discrimination and we\u2019re not going to allow it.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
As recently as the 1990s a broad coalition of church-state experts \u2014 from the American Civil Liberties Union to the Christian Coalition \u2014 managed to work together on some crucial religious liberty issues. The goal was to promote free speech, freedom of association and \u201cequal access\u201d for believers and nonbelievers in the public square.<\/p>\n
But today, driven by conflicts over gay rights, the spotlight is on what candidate Obama consistently called \u201creligious discrimination.\u201d The White House must choose between armies of religious believers who follow radically different sets of doctrines.<\/p>\n
In the end, it\u2019s impossible to separate the power of faith from the doctrines and traditions that inspire these believers, said Carlson-Thies.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe faith is where the passion comes from, it\u2019s where the witness is,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s clear that the president admires many of these faith groups and the work they do. The question he faces now is, \u2018Do you want to work with them or not?\u2019 \u201c<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Welcome to the church-state battlefield, President Barack Obama. Consider this hypothetical landmine: Would it be discrimination for a Christian AIDS hospice to refuse to hire a worker who believes AIDS is a sign of God\u2019s wrath? Ponder these scenarios. Can a Muslim school fire a teacher who converts to Christianity? Can a Jewish pre-school discriminate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[37,97,1532,211,1534,439,1544,1548],"class_list":["post-1564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-godbeat","tag-abortion","tag-barack-obama","tag-catholics","tag-church-and-state","tag-evangelicals","tag-homosexuality","tag-politics","tag-social-issues"],"yoast_head":"\n