Members of Obama’s Faith-Based Council Urge President to Continue Upholding Hiring Rights for Religious Grantees

Washington DC, March 8, 2010 – As the President's Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships prepares to present its final report tomorrow, some members are urging President Obama to continue upholding the law enabling faith-based organizations receiving federal funds to hire people of like-minded religious beliefs.

While the topic will not be addressed in the council’s report to the President, some on the council believe this issue, established in law over the last 46 years, must not be revisited, let alone weakened.

“The President has said he wants his faith-based initiative to be legal and constitutional, and it already is,” says Richard Stearns, president of the U.S. offices of World Vision, the international Christian humanitarian organization and a council member. “The only people trying to change the law and ‘fix’ what ‘isn’t broken’ are those who have always opposed federal funding to faith-based agencies that help the government deliver social services.”

The existing law, affirmed by all three branches of the U.S. government, guarantees that religious nonprofit agencies can hire employees who share their faith while using federal grants to serve people in need provided the money is not used for religious purposes and they serve all people regardless of faith.

This right is not new. It was recognized in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and extends to religious organizations serving the poor, homeless, victims of injustice and others both in the United States and internationally.

“This is both common sense and a fundamental right that is not lost when we are awarded federal grants,” Stearns added. “Faith-based organizations would not be faith-based if they could not hire employees who share their values and embrace their missions.”

“The President believes we must use every resource available to serve those in need,” says Father Larry J. Snyder, president of Catholic Charities USA. “Faith-based organizations, whether Jewish, Christian, Buddhist, or Muslim, compelled by their shared mandate to serve the down-trodden, are at the forefront delivering social services here in the U.S. and around the globe.”

Indeed, non-faith-based agencies like Planned Parenthood and The Nature Conservancy receive taxpayers’ funds and select their staff in part on the basis of their compatibility with those groups’ missions and values.

Stearns and Snyder agree with the legal requirement that their organizations serve all people in need, regardless of their religion, and that their agencies are prohibited from using public funds for proselytizing. Any religious activities performed by faith-based agencies must be accounted for separately and paid for through private donations.

In addition to these members of Obama’s council, constitutional law expert Douglas Laycock, recently weighed in on the issue. In a letter to Attorney General Eric H. Holder, Jr., the University of Michigan law professor and nationally recognized authority on church-state issues argues that the Justice Department was correct when it ruled in 2007 that faith-based charities should not be disqualified from applying for federal grants just because they insist their staffs embrace their religious missions.

“These grants with strings attached effectively either discriminate against faith-based service providers, or else bribe them to surrender their right to religious freedom,” Laycock explains. “This is not, and never has been, the law.”

World Vision is a Christian humanitarian organization dedicated to working with children, families and their communities worldwide to reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice. World Vision serves all people, regardless of religion, race, ethnicity or gender. For more information, please visit www.worldvision.org/press.