On March 10 leaders of civil rights and religious groups held a Senate briefing for members of the Senate and their staff to discuss the serious civil rights and religious liberty problems inherent in the “equal treatment” provisions of S. 272, the version of the CARE Act proposed by Sens. Rick Santorum (R-PA) and Joe Lieberman (D-CT). Another version of CARE, S. 476 has passed the Senate Finance Committee and may reach the floor soon. It has charitable giving and oversight provisions, but not the faith-based provisions in the Santorum-Lieberman “equal treatment” bill. It is expected that the “equal treatment” faith-based language the White House supports will be added to the Finance Committee when it gets to the Senate floor.

A number of speakers addressed these issues. Rep. Chet Edwards (D-TX) stated that, “No American citizen should have to take someone else’s religious test to qualify for a federal job.” Representatives from the United Church of Christ, United Methodist Church, American Jewish Committee and Human Rights Campaign noted recent actions by the Administration, through Executive Order and proposed regulations, that have endorsed religious based discrimination for jobs funded by federal grants. Edwards warned that, “The ultimate impact on our society would be devastating and divisive.”

The S. 272 version of the faith-based initiative legislation does not contain safeguards to protect the civil rights and religious liberty of employees and beneficiaries in federally funded social service programs. For instance, speakers noted that there is no ban on proselytization to program participants.

Rev. Marvin Silver, United Church of Christ Justice & Witness Ministries, described his denomination’s long history of anti-poverty advocacy, including cooperative efforts with government. Asking “Why change what is already working?” Silver said an influx of huge sums of federal dollars into church coffers would “damage rather than improve cooperative efforts between church and government.”

For more detail see our web update on CARE.