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A Christian ministry is suing Oregon officials after losing $400,000 in government funding because the group requires employees and volunteers to hold and share its religious beliefs with clients.
Attorneys representing Youth71Five Ministries sued Charlene Williams, director of the Oregon Department of Education; Brian Detman, director of the agency’s Youth Development Division; and Cord Bueker Jr., the division’s deputy director.
The ministry’s lawyers said the agency’s “new rule” requiring Youth71Five to “not discriminate … in [their] employment practices” violated their client’s religious freedom guarantees.
The public interest law firm Alliance Defending Freedom is representing the ministry, which is located in Medford, Oregon, and serves at-risk youth, young people in the judicial system and teen parents. The ministry says it serves all people but “achieves its goal through employees and volunteers who share its mission and beliefs.”
Oregon’s biennial Youth Community Investment Grants program has given money to Youth71Five since 2017, but its latest grant of more than $400,000 was rescinded under the requirement, said Bud Amundsen, the ministry’s executive director.
“We were some of their top-rated programs,” Mr. Amundsen said in a telephone interview. State grants allowed the organization to expand to a roster of 36 positions, of which 34 are currently filled, he added.
ADF attorneys said they plan to ask the U.S. District Court in Medford to issue a preliminary injunction to block the funding cutoff on Wednesday.
According to ADF senior counsel Jeremiah Galus, there’s no reason why Oregon should deny funding to the ministry.
“The Supreme Court has made very clear that the government cannot exclude religious organizations from generally available government benefit programs solely because of their religious character and beliefs,” Mr. Galus said in a telephone interview. “That’s something the First Amendment protects.”
The attorney added that “nobody is disputing that what [Youth71Five] does is a valuable resource to the community. It’s been a very successful partnership with the state of Oregon up until now.”
Mr. Galus said three Supreme Court rulings — Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia Inc. v. Comer in 2017, Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue in 2020 and Carson v. Makin in 2022 — uphold the right of religious organizations to receive various state funds available to other entities without being discriminated against because of their faith.
Marc Siegel, a spokesman for the Oregon Department of Education, said via email Wednesday, “The agency does not comment on pending legal cases.”
• Mark A. Kellner can be reached at mkellner@washingtontimes.com.
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