from Salvation Army is a Shell Game |
Compiled By GayToday Washington, D.C.--Although a White House/Salvation Army deal has fallen apart, the Bush administration's faith-based initiative continues to allow federally funded employment discrimination, according to Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
Tuesday night, Bush officials indicated they were backing off from making those regulatory changes. However, while some have characterized this step as progress on improving the measure, Americans United, the nation's leading opponent of the faith-based initiative, said nothing has really changed. "The Bush administration is engaged in an outrageous shell game," said the Reverend Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United. "The faith-based initiative still mandates federally funded employment discrimination on religious grounds. White House spin doctors are trying to paper over the employment discrimination at the core of this initiative, but no one should be fooled. "White House officials have promised that they won't pursue discrimination through executive order," Lynn added. "But they don't need regulations to allow discrimination -- it's already a key component of the federal legislation working its way through Congress." The "Community Solutions Act" (H.R. 7), introduced by Rep. J.C. Watts (R-Okla.), is the congressional version of the Bush initiative. "Charitable choice" provisions of the bill, which would direct federal grants and contracts to churches and other religious groups without legal safeguards, have been controversial for a series of reasons, including questions about discrimination with public funds. H.R. 7 already specifically exempts religious groups that receive aid from state and local anti-discrimination laws. In other words, the opportunities to discriminate that the Salvation Army sought are already in the bill.
Lynn noted that the administration's support for employment discrimination is wildly unpopular with the American people. According to a survey released in April by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, an overwhelming 78 percent of Americans say government-funded religious groups should not be able to hire only people who share their beliefs to staff their programs, a key component of the Bush plan. |