A new rule published by the U.S. Department of Labor which will implement an executive order signed by President Barack Obama this summer will not only forbid discrimination against the same-sex attracted but prohibits an employer’s disapproval of this conduct.
According to the Christian Post when Obama signed the order in July of this year, he noted that there would be no exemption for religious groups in a new nondiscrimination rule for federal contractors that prohibits them from discriminating against persons on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. However, as a compromise, he left in place an executive order issued by former President George W. Bush which allows religious groups with federal contracts to hire people of faith with the same religious views.
However, Obama’s attempt at compromise lacks the kind of clarity it needs in order to be effective, a circumstance that the new rules did nothing to correct.
For instance, “What happens when the religious hiring exemption conflicts with the nondiscrimination clause?”, the Post asks. “For instance, what if a religious organization requires its employees to abide by sexual ethics consistent with its faith, and those sexual ethics include a ban on same gender sexual relations? The Labor Department did not clarify this question when it made public the final regulations on Wednesday.”
Instead, the new regulations make no mention of religious groups. A mention of “religious entities” on the Labor Department’s FAQ page also lacks clarity. While it mentions that the U.S. Supreme Court requires a “ministerial exemption” from nondiscrimination laws, it doesn’t say if a religious organization that believes homosexuality is a sin would be allowed to deny employment – or fire someone – who is in a same-sex relationship.
This lack of clarity is what troubles the U.S. Conference of Catholic bishops who expressed disappointment in the new rules.
“We will study the regulations carefully, but we note the following initially. Our Church teaches that ‘[e]very sign of unjust discrimination’ against those who experience same-sex attraction ‘should be avoided’ (Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 2358)—but it appears on an initial reading that these regulations would prohibit far more than that ‘unjust discrimination’,” the statement reads.
“In particular, they appear also to prohibit employers’ religious and moral disapproval of same-sex sexual conduct, which creates a serious threat to freedom of conscience and religious liberty, because ‘[u]nder no circumstances’ may Catholics approve of such conduct (No. 2357). Very many other people over a broad spectrum of different religious faiths hold this same conviction. Additionally, the regulations advance the false ideology of ‘gender identity,’ which ignores biological reality and harms the privacy and associational rights of both contractors and their employees.”
The conclude: “In justice, the Administration should not exclude contractors from federal contracting simply because they have religious or moral convictions about human sexuality and sexual conduct that differ from the views of the current governmental authorities.”
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