OPINION:
The State Department is seeking to elevate social commentary and ideology over the needs of hundreds of millions of people across the globe.
In January, the Biden administration issued a proposed rule that would require nonprofit religious organizations to hire employees without regard to their faith, religion or beliefs if such organizations wanted to be considered for federal assistance or funding of their overseas work. This new regulatory hurdle for Christian relief organizations would be disastrous.
U.S. funding of international relief is crucial to many parts of the world. Whether it is a Zambian mother longing for anti-malarial bed nets for her children, displaced Sudanese in Darfur who are starving, or villagers in Rwanda needing access to clean, parasite-free water, these needs are frequently met through charitable Christian organizations. And their lifesaving work is scaled up with federal assistance that the State Department is now threatening to withhold.
The rule would most harm faith-based or biblically based nonprofit organizations. The relief provided by religious organizations whose mission requires hiring people who share their faith will likely be drastically reduced if this proposed regulation is allowed to take effect.
As the CEO of the Christian Legal Society, I’m thankful that these U.S. aid debacles haven’t happened — yet.
Christian nonprofits have played an essential global role in helping “the least of these” for decades. Suddenly, they would be forced to either forgo federal funding or abandon their religious character and hire staff irrespective of their religious convictions — including whether they support a biblical definition of gender and marriage.
That means leading Christian nonprofits such as Samaritan’s Purse and the International Justice Mission — which stand among our nation’s most efficient and effective providers of global relief and assistance — would lose funding for food, emergency medical procedures, remediation of those affected by human trafficking, and economic empowerment for single mothers — to name only a few. The consequences would be life and death from the perspective of the most vulnerable nations across the globe that depend on the services this aid provides.
Consider the broader precedent this would set. If the federal government can force religious relief organizations to choose between their mission and access to federal funds, Uncle Sam could eventually bring financial pressure — for example, by revoking tax exemption for those who have Christian conduct standards for their staff is utterly alien to our Constitution and the vision of religious freedom laid out by our nation’s Founders.
Thankfully, to date, the courts, Congress and the Constitution all agree: The federal bureaucracy cannot tell a faith-based organization whom it shall hire. The laws and precedents on this are well established. In addition to the First Amendment, they include Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993, presidential executive orders, and the recent unanimous Supreme Court decision in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, 565 U.S. 171 (2012).
Apparently, however, the authors of the State Department’s proposed new rule didn’t get the memo. And in response, every civil libertarian, churchgoer, religious individual and constitutional scholar in this country should be alarmed.
“We believe this is just a trial balloon to see if anyone notices and objects,” warns Steve McFarland, director of CLS’ Center for Law & Religious Freedom. “If they can slip this one in, we anticipate that next, just over the horizon, will come an identical rule from the U.S. Agency for International Development, followed by serious campaigns in Congress and the White House to revoke the tax-exempt status for all churches and ministries that espouse biblical views on marriage.”
The Christian Legal Society filed our strong objection to this pernicious rule. Our comments were joined by the Accord Network, representing over 100 Christian relief organizations. We have asked the State Department to acknowledge the strong legal precedents and laws that protect believers’ First Amendment rights. It is shocking that ideology would destroy the work and care for so many around the globe with such disregard.
The U.S. government, the State Department and Congress must continue to exempt religious groups and faith-based ministries and not tempt them to forgo their hiring rights in order to compete for federal funding. The government should never dictate or coerce the character of religious people or organizations, but rather should protect their right to have a religious identity as they have for decades. “Blessed is he who has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor” (Psalm 112.9) is an admonition we must never forget.
• David Nammo is CEO of the Christian Legal Society.
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