Justice Unit Puts Its Focus on Faith

[Rose Siding]

snip>
The Justice Department's religious-rights unit, established three years ago, has launched a quiet but ambitious effort aimed at rectifying what the Bush administration views as years of illegal discrimination against religious groups and their followers.

Many court decisions have affirmed the rights of individuals in the public sector not to have religious beliefs imposed on them — the Supreme Court ruling banning school-sponsored prayer in public schools among them. And courts have ruled that the rights of religious groups sometimes need protection too — upholding, for example, their right to have access to public buildings for meetings.

But the argument that a religious institution spending public funds has the right to require employees to embrace its beliefs — and that it will be backed by the Justice Department in doing so — has changed the debate. It is an argument the Bush administration is making in Congress as well as in the courts.
...
The webpage of the Justice Department unit reads: "Religious liberty was central to the Founders' vision for America, and is the 'first freedom' listed in the 1st Amendment of the Bill of Rights. A critical component of religious liberty is the right of people of all faiths to participate fully in the benefits and privileges of society without facing discrimination based on their religion."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-religion7mar07,0,3712918.story?coll=la-home-headlines

[OneBlueSky]

1. welcome to the United States of Jesus Christ . . .

Bush says he wants a secular government in Iraq . . . how about a secular government right here? . . . I never voted for a theocracy . . .

[DeepModem Mom]

2. kick

[Mari333]

3. Then I assume all Satanists will be given the same rights

as Christians, when preaching becomes di rigeur in the classrooms of the USA? They opened this Pandoras box, its all or none now.

[YankeyMCC]

4. Justice Unit Puts Its Focus on Faith

"A little-known civil rights office has been busily defending religious groups.
By Richard B. Schmitt
Times Staff Writer

March 7, 2005

WASHINGTON — One of the main jobs at the Justice Department is enforcing the nation's civil rights laws. So when a nonprofit group was accused of employment discrimination last year in New York, the department moved swiftly to intervene — but not on the side one might expect.

The Salvation Army was accused in a lawsuit of imposing a new religious litmus test on employees hired with millions of dollars in public funds.

When employees complained that they were being required to embrace Jesus Christ to keep their jobs, the Justice Department's civil rights division took the side of the Salvation Army.

Defending the right of an employer using public funds to discriminate is one of the more provocative steps taken by a little-known arm of the civil rights division and its special counsel for religious discrimination."


http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-na-religion7mar07,1,4278717,print.story?coll=la-headlines-frontpage&ctrack=1&cset=true

How much more do people need to see this administration is "Government for the corporation, by the corporation". They're twisting even our most basic values into perversions to serve and protect artificial entities - corporations - over real people.

[ixion]

5. welcome to the new 'Murika

including, but not limited to, government sanctioned censorship, discrimination and intimidation.

[ChickMagic]

8. Then I guess they don't

want my evil atheist donations either.

[daleo]

6. Time to re-read The Scarlet Letter.

Do they still teach that one in school, I wonder?

[Ezlivin]

7. Time to re-read "The Handmaid's Tale", too

Perhaps we're seeing a confluence of the two.