Obama Seeks State Control Over Church Hiring Practices

The Obama administration is assaulting church and religious freedom by asking the Supreme Court to rule that the government can regulate the employment practices of religious institutions. In other words, Obama wants to apply Federal employment discrimination laws to the church. Throughout American history the government has stayed away from regulating religious activities based on the first amendment’s free exercise clause. As a result religious institutions aren’t taxed and aren’t regulated by the state. Obama seeks to undo this and force Federal employment law upon the church and other religious institutions.

It’s been said throughout American history that the power to tax is the power to destroy. As such the church has never been taxed by the government, largely because it subjects the church to state control. It can be said today that the power to regulate is the power to destroy. Which is perhaps why the Obama administration wants to regulate church activities by applying employment discrimination laws to the church and other religious institutions. If the government is give the ability by the Supreme Court to regulate the employment acts of the church then it’s a matter of time before the government can regulate every aspect of church activity.

Make no mistake regulating the employment activities of the church is an attempt to control the church. The government claims that it attempting to prevent discrimination in religious schools and other religious institutions. But in doing so they’re seeking to control the church. If a religious school is not free to discriminate against, for example, other religions, then they are being controlled by the state to the point that their religious teaching becomes meaningless.

To illustrate this, say we have a Christian school that seeks to teach children in the Christian tradition. If the school is part of a church, it is currently protected from Federal discrimination laws. If Obama gets his way, those laws would apply. As a result, the church would be prevented from discriminating against applicants who are Jewish, Muslim or Atheist because Federal law prevents discrimination based on religious faith. The school, and thus the church, would be prevented from making sure its students are only being taught by fellow believers. We could extend this to any religion. Can you imagine telling an Orthodox Jewish school that they had to hire Muslims or a Muslim school that they had to hire Jews and Christians? The government in all these cases would be preventing the free exercise of religion under the Constitution.

It is likely that the goal isn’t limited to scenarios such as a Christian school being forced to hire and/or not discriminate against Muslims or Atheists. While not yet a Federally protected class, you can bet the left is eying making homosexuals a protected class under Federal employment law. If the Obama administration is successful at regulating the church via employment law then it can force the church to not discriminate (ie: hire) homosexuals despite religious opposition to their orientation. You can bet that if this isn’t the long term goal of Obama himself it is the long term goal of many of the leftists in his administration.

All religious institutions must be free from government control. Any control over the hiring practices of the church or other religious institutions amounts to an infringement on the free exercise of religion. The left loves to throw around ‘separation of church and state’ as though religious people aren’t free to speak about their faith in the public square. These same people are oddly silent when the state seeks to control the church via law and regulation. The church itself ought not have any power over or within the state. (religious people are another matter) Likewise, the state should have no power in the church. It surely should not have the power to tell the church who it may not refuse to hire.