Defending the right to discriminate

The L.A. Times reports on a group at the Justice Department that is standing up for the right of groups like the Salvation army to discriminate on the basis of religion.

The Salvation Army was accused in a lawsuit of imposing a new religious litmus test on employees hired with millions of dollars in public funds. When employees complained that they were being required to embrace Jesus Christ to keep their jobs, the Justice Department's civil rights division took the side of the Salvation Army.

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The department's position in the case — that religious groups should be able to hire or fire people based on their religious views, even when administering publicly funded programs — is a cornerstone of President Bush's faith-based initiative. The initiative is channeling hundreds of millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars to churches and other religious groups to deliver social services. ... Bush has said he believes that, so long as they do not infuse their social programs with religious messages, religious groups should not have to sacrifice their religious character — by employing nonbelievers or followers of a different faith — in order to qualify for federal funds. ... In 2003, according to a lawsuit filed by more than a dozen workers in its Social Services for Children division, the Salvation Army began requiring employees to divulge information about their faiths, including the churches they attended and their ministers. They were also called on to embrace a new mission statement — included in job postings and job descriptions — that declared the top goal of the social welfare operation is "to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and to meet human needs in his name without discrimination." The previous mission statement was "to empower each person who enters our doors to live with dignity and hope," and contained no religious references.

Of course, as long as there is more than group delivering social welfare services, employees always have the option to go elsewhere.

"I worked there for 24 years. When I was hired, nobody ever asked me what my religious beliefs were. What they were really looking for were my professional skills, " said Anne Lown, the program's former second in command. She resigned because of the Salvation Army's "illegal infusion of religion" into the workplace, and now heads a child social services program for Catholic Charities in New York.

In this case, the Salvation Army has lost a (presumably) valuable employee. The Salvation Army has decided religious integrity is more important than keeping the employees who will leave. If they guess wrong, they will decline at the expense of whoever winds up with the departed employees.

In a way, it seems to me the response is the same as it is to groups that object to God in the Boy Scouts' oath: form your own group. Show everyone how much better the result is when it's done your way.