Despite a broad charge to guard against religious discrimination, President Obama’s order creating a Council for Faith-Based & Neighborhood Partnerships leaves in place executive orders from George W. Bush, one of which allows such discrimination, according to the watchdog group Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
“President George W. Bush’s faith-based initiative allowed religious groups that accept tax funding to engage in discriminatory hiring and celebrated faith-based groups that proselytize,” says Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United.
“Today’s Obama action leaves the Bush executive orders in place including one that specifically authorizes religion-based employment discrimination in publicly funded programs.”
Lynn said he was “very disappointed” that Obama stopped short of directly barring evangelism and religion-based hiring bias in tax-financed programs.
“I would rather there be no ‘faith-based’ office,” Lynn said. “But if it exists, it must comply with long-established protections guaranteeing civil rights and civil liberties.”
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs insisted the new Obama office will not replicate the same faith-based policies of the Bush White House. He said the order creating the new council included language barring discrimination in the job description for the panel’s new executive director.