In what is good news for those who value Religious Freedom and the Liberty of Conscience, the Trump Administration is proposing a new rule change that will allow employers who contract with the federal government to decide whether or not they hire those will deviant sexual lifestyles.
The rule change proposal was announced yesterday by the U.S. Department of Labor. The proposed change will allow government contractors, including universities, hospitals, and corporations, to claim religious exemptions in hiring decisions if they can prove the organization has a religious purpose.
This proposed change will undo a draconian decision by the Obama decision to restrict religious employers from their right of conscience in hiring decisions. The policy is overseen by the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), and will affect religious employers nationwide.
U.S. Secretary of Labor Patrick Pizella said yesterday, “Today’s proposed rule helps to ensure the civil rights of religious employers are protected. As people of faith with deeply held religious beliefs are making decisions on whether to participate in federal contracting, they deserve clear understanding of their obligations and protections under the law.”
The ACLU is opposing the rule change, saying that the U.S. Labor Department is basically seeking to remove the Obama Executive Order disallowing such liberties without going through the official process of removing it by another Executive Order. Thus, the decision will be made by a Trump cabinet appointee and leave the president in preparation for the 2020 elections with his ‘hands clean’ of anything that may appear to be less than catering to the LGBTQXYZ community.
Opponents of the change claim that “religious purpose” is poorly defined and will allow a loophole for virtually any organization to claim a religious exemption. They also point out that nearly one in four Americans is employed by a company that contracts with the Federal Government, allowing many to be ‘vulnerable’ to the religious convictions of their employers.
Ian Thompson, a senior representative for the ACLU, told Reuters, “This is about religiously motivated discrimination.”
Of course, Thompson is right. This is about religiously motivated discrimination—which happens to be a First Amendment right in the United States Constitution. If an employer doesn’t want to hire someone who suffers from gender dysphoria or a sexual deviancy like homosexuality or bestiality, they shouldn’t be forced to.
