Religious discrimination

Oh my. This is very alarming. Bush wants faith-based organizations who receive federal funds for their programs to be able to discriminate on the basis of belief when they are hiring people to administer those programs. The article entitled "Bush says religious beliefs should figure in charity jobs" is published in the Los Angeles Times but Smirking Chimp has also picked it up. I'm giving you the link to the reprint on Smirking Chimp so you can read the comments after the article as many people posting have raised some very insightful points.

Here are the first few paragraphs:

President Bush on Tuesday threatened to impose controversial new policies to let federally funded religious charities make hiring decisions based on the religious beliefs of potential employees.

Calling for an expansion of his faith-based initiative, Bush said that if Congress did not vote for the changes in hiring law this year, he would consider doing it himself through "executive action." Administration officials later said it remained unclear what powers the president had to affect hiring laws through executive order.

The president's remarks came on the eve of a House vote on the hiring issue. Administration officials say that some religious charities have been dissuaded from applying for federal grants out of fear that they would lose their religious identities in having to comply with civil rights laws that prevent discrimination in hiring.

Opponents say the change would be tantamount to government-sponsored discrimination, a fear that led Senate Democrats and skeptical Republicans to block the initiative during Bush's first term.

We are losing our historical, constitutional separation of church and state and are on our way to becoming a theocracy. The Christian "Taliban" in this country is already legislating morality and is trying to legislate the culture. I honestly think we should be taking to the streets on this one and I wish I were more optimistic about the willingness of the Democrats to fight it like hell. I don't understand the widespread apathy on this issue. Separation of church and state protects us all - the fundamentalists included. But they are not happy to worship as they see fit in peace. They want to impose their brand of religion on the rest of us. It is very, very troubling.