scripture, or other symbols” as a condition of accepting federal money.
14
Furthermore,
they retain their exemption (provided by Section 702 of the 1964 Civil Rights Act) from
rules that prohibit organizations from discriminating with respect to religion in their
employment practices. In other words, they are permitted to receive federal funds and to
hire only those sympathetic to their religious worldview.
At the same time, any individual who objects to the orientation of the faith-based
organization has a right to be provided an unobjectionable and comparable alternative by
the government.
15
And no such organization can refuse to serve clients on religious
grounds, nor can it discriminate against anyone who does not wish to participate in the
religious component of its program. In other words, a client could reject altogether the
religious component of the social service program but still be entitled to the secular
services provided by the agency. He or she could take the employment training without
the prayer meetings.
Of course, the trick lies in enforcing these guarantees of the religious freedom of the
clients without violating the religious freedom of the providers. The law requires that
providers be subject to the same sorts of audits as other government contractors, but
recommends, in effect, that federal funds be segregated in separate accounts, so that the
private monies raised by the organization would not be subject to untoward governmental
scrutiny. And the law absolutely forbids federal monies from being used to support
“sectarian worship, instruction, or proselytization.”
16
Convention