More rocks and more hard places for faith-based groups taking federal money
As we have reported previously, US refugee resettlement contractors which live off of millions and millions of your grant dollars are being faced with Obama Administration changes in policy that are forcing them to ultimately choose between principles of faith and cold hard federal cash that keeps them alive.
Here is another story that tells us about the rock and a hard place groups like the US Conference of Catholic Bishops find themselves in now that they have gotten in bed with ‘Caesar.’
I don’t think this will be as great a hardship for them as the earlier edict from the White House that the Bishops and others taking care of the ‘unaccompanied alien children’ must offer abortion services, but it is nonetheless a reminder of the perils of “church” groups becoming beholden to the federal government.
From Breitbart (hat tip: Julia). BREAKING: Obama to Force Faith-Based Grant Recipients to Hire LGBTs
The Obama Administration is poised to require faith-based recipients of federal grants to accept applications from LGBT individuals, according to a report published today by the Center for Family and Human Rights (C-Fam).
By executive order last summer, President Obama amended the Johnson-era federal order on non-discrimination in hiring by federal contractors to include non-discrimination based on “sexual orientation and gender identity.” That order has roiled faith-based groups.
A confidential source tells C-Fam that the White House has directed federal agencies to include “sexual orientation and gender identity” as protected classes in all grant agreements.
[….]
Faith-based groups, still grappling with the contracting question, are being caught off guard by this new policy on grants. None of the groups contacted by C-Fam were aware of the new policy.
The office of Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore, who also heads the Bishop’s committee on religious freedom, wouldn’t comment. Neither would Anthony Picarello, General Counsel of the Catholic Bishop’s Conference. Catholic agencies would be hit particularly hard by such a change.
At the time of the executive order last summer, two Bishop-Chairmen of the USCCB said the order was “unprecedented and extreme and should be opposed.”
See this post earlier in the year about how much each of the nine major refugee contractors receive from the federal treasury (numbers are from FY2012). They could not exist without this massive infusion into their coffers of your tax dollars.
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