The Church Law Group » President George W. Bush http://churchlawgroup.com/blog Church law, legal issues, and helpful resources Fri, 03 May 2013 21:57:07 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.2 The Religious Right to Hire or Discriminate http://churchlawgroup.com/blog/church-employment/the-religious-right-to-hire-or-discriminate/ http://churchlawgroup.com/blog/church-employment/the-religious-right-to-hire-or-discriminate/#comments Mon, 25 Jul 2011 16:38:40 +0000 wendi.hodges http://churchlawgroup.com/blog/?p=684 Part of President George W. Bush’s Faith-Based Initiative included giving religious organizations that contracted with the government the right to hire, or discriminate depending on how you look at it, on the basis of religion.  His policy broke a long-standing tradition of prohibiting all forms of hiring discrimination involving government contracts.  Recently, a group of more than fifty religious, civil rights, women’s, labor, and health organizations banned together to write President Obama a letter urging him to rescind former President Bush’s policy.  If President Obama obeys, religious organizations that contract with the government, i.e. receive a federal grant to support a charitable program, will no longer be allowed to discriminate on the basis of religion in their hiring process.  As of now, those religious organizations that contract with the government need not fear—President Obama has yet to act, but has instead decided to take the matter under further advisement.  USA Today recently published an article about this push to change the faith-based hiring rules, which can be found here.

However, perhaps it’s possible that religious organization’s may not need to be concerned at all.  Speaking at a town hall meeting at the University of Maryland last Friday, President Barack Obama assured those in attendance that the law allowing religious organizations to base their hiring practices on the faith of potential employees was “balanced.”  More about the town hall meeting can be read here.

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