Perhaps the President most unfriendly to the freedom of religion in America. . .

Image: Getty Images

From Christianity Today:

An executive order President Obama signed Monday prohibiting sexual orientation discrimination in federal hiring may not immediately affect many religious organizations, but leaders are still raising their eyebrows.

The executive order amends a 1965 order prohibiting some forms of discrimination by federal contractors. The old text forbade contractors from discriminating "against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin." Obama's revision adds "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" between "sex" and "national origin."

Many religious organizations, such as World Vision, World Relief, and Catholic Charities partner with the federal government, but often receive grants, not contracts, so are not affected by the order, said Stanley Carlson-Thies, director of the Institutional Religious Freedom Alliance.

Religious organizations with federal grants are currently protected: A 2007 religious exemption memo from the federal attorney general's office says the Religious Freedom Restoration Act "is reasonably construed" to exempt World Vision (and other religious organizations that administer federal funds through social services programs) from religious nondiscrimination requirements on other federal grantees.

The executive order also lets stand a George W. Bush-era provision allowing religious contractors to hire employees "of a particular religion," said Thomas Berg, a professor of law and public policy at the University of St. Thomas (Minn.).

"Several federal courts have held that this language, incorporated from elsewhere in antidiscrimination law, allows religious organizations to have standards concerning employees' conduct if those moral standards stem from the organization's religious beliefs," Berg said.

These past orders add up to a patchwork of protection for religious organizations, said Douglas Laycock, a professor of law and religious studies at the University of Virginia.

"And very important, [the] executive order creates no right for anyone to sue anyone else. So gay rights groups cannot organize litigation against religious contactors," he said. "Only the contracting agencies can enforce this order, and they may quietly enforce it with attention to religious liberty—which is what this administration has mostly done so far."  However, that may not always be the case, said Jenny Yang, vice president of advocacy and policy for World Relief, a federal grantee.

Hidden in the generalities is the situation of Gordon College, a respected Christian institution, which has been thrust into the fray for requesting a religious exemption from the president’s executive order prohibiting any one doing business with the government to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation.  It is of note that the Hobby Lobby religious exemption for Obamacare contraception coverage explicitly declared that the ruling did not apply in cases of discrimination.  The next great issue of religious liberty issue may well be the situation of Gordon College.

This represents the continuing quest of the Obama Administration to reduce the constitution freedom of religion to a mere freedom to worship and this require that every other aspect of any religious organization or church conform to all federal restrictions, regulations, executive orders, and laws without regard to their status as religious organizations.

Either this President is the most unfriendly resident of the Oval Office to the freedom of religion in America or else he is determined to make all religious organizations subservient to his own views.  This action is a dangerous precedent for the narrowing of the right guaranteed under the Bill of Rights and could be the signal for more retraining of the rights of churches and Christians to live by their faith freely and unencumbered by federal regulation or requirement.