Jan
18
Ninth Circuit Votes in Favor of Religious Liberty
“Personnel is policy [and] who a religious organization hires may go to the very character of its religious mission.” — Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals
This just happened a few days ago, and it’s definitely worth noting. An appellate court has ruled that the government has no right to force church and ministry organizations to hire people who do not agree with the values and beliefs of that church or organization. Most surprising is that the court in question covers the Ninth Circuit (California, Oregon, Hawaii, etc.), known for not only being “a bastion of judicial activism and progressive ideology” but “increasingly hostile to people and institutions of faith.”
A pared-down version of the article from Breakpoint (by John Stonestreet and Ian Speir) follows…
— — —
In Union Gospel Mission of Yakima v. Brown, the court affirmed that religious organizations have a constitutional right to hire according to their faith, even for “ordinary” or non-minister positions, and they can do this without government interference. It’s a moment worth celebrating, not only for the plaintiff, Union Gospel Mission, but for every church and ministry organization that takes its faith seriously.
At the heart of the case was this question: Can the government force a Christian organization to hire employees who openly reject its faith and mission? Attorneys for the state of Washington said, yes. The Ninth Circuit responded with a resounding, no….
Thankfully, the Ninth Circuit affirmed what many of us already know: religious organizations are more than just employers of labor. Rather, they are communities of shared belief and religious mission…. Whenever ministries are forced to dilute their convictions in order to comply with secular norms, they cease to be who they are. As the Ninth Circuit noted in its decision, this kind of pressure would drive many religious missions out of the public square entirely. That would be a loss not just for churches and ministries, but also for communities and the countless people served by organizations of faith….
Now, as important as this decision is, it has its limits. For example, it does not grant religious institutions blanket immunity from employment laws. And it does not necessarily apply to for-profit businesses or hospitals. Still, it does affirm the right of ministries like Union Gospel Mission to make personnel decisions that flow directly from their religious convictions, even if those convictions conflict with secular orthodoxy.
The court’s decision also reminds us of a critical truth: Faith is personal, but it is not private. [Bold added.] Religious liberty doesn’t just protect our rights to believe in the privacy of our heads, our hearts, our homes, or our houses of worship. The First Amendment protects religious exercise, the active, practical living out of one’s deepest-held conviction, including the building and running of organizations designed to apply those convictions to the challenges and struggles of life. America in particular would be far worse off without the pre-political organizations that run headlong into the problems of our society seeking to help those in need….
— — —
This ruling may not be as strong or far-reaching as some of us would like, but… we should take the “Win”!
