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THE QUESTION
Faith-Based Discrimination
Should the Obama Administration let faith-based programs that receive government grants discriminate against those they hire or serve?
Posted by
Sally Quinn and Jon Meacham on February 11, 2009 3:51 AM
FROM THE PANEL
Faith-Based Hiring, No Faith-Based Serving
The only justification for government grants to faith-based programs is public proof that the programs benefit the general public with secular values.
Posted by Willis E. Elliott, on February 17, 2009 9:07 AM
Don't Use My Tax Dollars to Discriminate
If your faith-based organization wants to discriminate because of its beliefs, there is a simple remedy. Don't take the federal grant money.
Posted by Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, on February 17, 2009 7:19 AM
Yes. No. Probably.
The Obama administration should probably let faith-based programs that receive government grants discriminate against those they hire or serve: apparent discrimination might be understandable discernment that could eventually lead to dialogue.
Posted by Mathew N. Schmalz, on February 17, 2009 5:36 AM
Why Work For Something You Don't Believe In?
When religious organizations open their doors and staffs to people of other beliefs, there is an opportunity for growth and greater understanding of how our society can move forward in a more unified matter.
Posted by Matt Maher, on February 17, 2009 12:19 AM
Beware the Faith-Based Funding Trap
I would never advise a Christian organization to participate in these federal programs or to receive tax monies. The brutal reality is that when government money flows, government regulation inevitably follows. Furthermore, taking government money sets a bad precedent and can easily become a seductive snare.
Posted by R. Albert Mohler Jr., on February 13, 2009 9:23 AM
Finding the Faith-Based Balance
There must be no proselytizing with public funds, nor funding any worship services or religious activities. In other words, no religious litmus tests, and no required sermons before showers or soup.
Posted by Jim Wallis, on February 13, 2009 2:54 AM
Government Funding Of, By and For ALL
If the government issues money to any faith-based institution, the government should have the right to demand that there be no discrimination in hiring, and if an institution or organization has a problem with that, that same institution should not seek government funding.
Posted by Susan K. Smith, on February 13, 2009 12:55 AM
Discrimination Is a Problem, Not Faith
The federal government has no business aiding programs which follow such practices. Note that I said programs, not organizations.
Posted by Brad Hirschfield, on February 13, 2009 12:33 AM
Why We Don't Take Government Funds
As a matter of policy and principle, my own church - The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - chooses to avoid that pitfall altogether. It simply doesn't accept government funding for its welfare efforts.
Posted by Michael Otterson, on February 12, 2009 7:20 AM
Uncle Sam's Faith
Government and faith partnerships exist for community empowerment and renewal. The wall between church and state works both ways. It protects the government from one religious belief system usurping all other convictions but similarly the wall protects the Church from the State.
Posted by Samuel Rodriguez, on February 12, 2009 6:00 AM
Discrimination With Federal Money
If sectarian organizations are using their own money, they have every right to employ only persons committed to their religion. However, if taxpayers are funding a program, that program should reflect our nation's historic commitment to civil rights.
Posted by Welton Gaddy, on February 12, 2009 12:18 AM
Support All Charities or None
If government must be in the business of charity, it would be wise to fund diverse approaches with competing moral assumptions.
Posted by John Mark Reynolds, on February 11, 2009 7:40 PM
Government Money For Religion Equals Government Favoritism Of Religion
With all due respect to Obama's desire to broaden the program beyond the honeypot for right-wing evangelical groups that it became under President Bush, it is impossible to dole out money for programs directly administered by religious institutions without doing violence to the separation of church and state.
Posted by Susan Jacoby, on February 11, 2009 8:39 AM
Discrimination Turns Back the Clock
Allowing religious organizations to discriminate in the private sector is an appropriate accommodation of religion. To subsidize religious discrimination with tax dollars is arguably unconstitutional.
Posted by J. Brent Walker, on February 11, 2009 7:40 AM
Keeping the Faith in Faith-Based
Faith-based programs can never discriminate against those they serve. In our ministry we serve Muslims, atheists, and Christians alike. But we have to be able to control our own hiring.
Posted by Charles "Chuck" Colson, on February 11, 2009 4:55 AM
Compassion Doesn't Require Conversion
If religious organizations are running programs that help people in non-religious ways, such as helping the poor with food and shelter, helping prisoners with education, helping people during times of disasters, they should of course be funded, but only on condition that they not proselytize their religious beliefs while dispensing the needed assistance.
Posted by Robert Thurman, on February 11, 2009 1:51 AM
Faith-Based Initiatives
The vocation of the church is not to convert the world, but to transform the world, so that every person in it has a better chance to live fully, to love wastefully and to be all that he or she can be.
Posted by John Shelby Spong, on February 10, 2009 8:10 PM
FEATURED COMMENTS
SpiritualMongrel: If you want public funds then there are three options:
1)you must hire and serve everyone.
2)Revoke your tax exempt status.
3)Change the c...
Rich393: The government has **ABSOLUTELY NO BUSINESS** underwriting any religious program. It is insane to expect that religions will not voice thei...
lepidopteryx: I don't think the federal government should be writing checks to religious organizations or their subsidiaries in the first place.
If my ch...
