Conservatives Blast ENDA Bill for Restricting Religious Freedom
Conservative leaders are lamenting the recent passage of a bill that would make it illegal for Christian business owners to make employment decisions based on "sexual orientation."
On Wednesday, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 235-184 to pass the Employment Non-discrimination Act (ENDA), a bill which adds "sexual orientation" to a list of federally protected classes under a 1964 act that prohibits job discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin.
If the legislation makes it pass the Senate, it will likely be blocked as the White House has already indicated President Bush's intention to veto the bill.
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But the fact the bill made it pass the House has prompted an outcry from leaders of pro-family organizations who are adamantly urging a veto.
"This is a bad bill with bad consequences for our nation," said Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.
"I am extremely hopeful, if it were by some strange happenstance to pass the Senate, the president would follow through on his signals to veto this really bad bill," added Land in a Baptist Press report.
Some of the reasons ERLC cited for opposing the bill included the establishment of rights for a category that does not rise to the level of unchangeable traits, such as race and gender. The group also contended that the measure would pave the way for the legalization of "same-sex marriage."
Matt Barber, a policy director for cultural issues at Concerned Women for America, said ENDA's supporters have "drawn a black line through the free exercise clause of the First Amendment."
Sharing the concerns of many opponents of the bill, Barber said in a written release Thursday that the legislation would violate an employer's free exercise of religion.
"ENDA would unconstitutionally force business owners to abandon their faith at the workplace door and adopt a view of sexual morality which runs directly counter to central tenets of every major world religion and thousands of years of history," said Barber.
"It's hard to imagine the Framers agreeing that newfangled 'gay rights,' based on changeable sexual behaviors, should trump the First Amendment," he added.
CWA is calling upon its supporters to ask their senators to reject the bill while other pro-family groups such as Liberty Counsel have urged its constituents to ask the president to follow through with the veto.
"[W]e need to make sure there are enough votes to sustain that veto in the Senate, as we did in the House, should ENDA ultimately cross his desk," Shari Rendall, CWA's director of legislation and public policy, stated Thursday.
A two-thirds vote or greater is needed in both the House and the Senate to override the president's veto.
Republicans who spoke against the bill Wednesday claimed it would lead to an onslaught of questionable litigation. They said the enactment of the bill would also lead to situations where Christian employees could be forbidden to have Bibles at their desk since a co-worker might argue that presence of a religious symbol constitutes a hostile work environment.
"The so-called 'Employment Non-Discrimination Act' creates a legal quagmire for employees who practice, or even acknowledge, their religious beliefs — depending on where they happen to work, and subject to judicial interpretation," said House Republican Whip Roy Blunt of Missouri in a statement following the vote.
On Monday, many notable pro-family leaders sent a letter to all House members urging them to vote against the measure. Among the other 62 signers of that letter were representatives of Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. Focus on the Family, Family Research Council, Exodus International, Alliance Defense Fund, Concerned Women for America and American Family Association.
