The letter notes that Obama inherited a “deeply flawed” Faith-based Office, but it expresses disappointment that, to date, “almost every aspect of the Bush Administration Faith-Based Initiative remains in place.” It goes on to applaud the “extraordinary efforts that many Council members have made to identify ways to strengthen the constitutional protections” of the office, but the signatories “deeply regret that the [Faith-based Advisory] Council was not permitted to make recommendations on the issue of religion-based employment decisions.”

The Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty (BJC) has long been a proponent of making sure that the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships has strong guidelines on hiring for government-supported programs.

“Partnerships between government and faith-based organizations are a given,” said J. Brent Walker,  executive director of the BJC and a member of the task force charged with recommending reforms for the Faith-based Office. “However, the rules of cooperation must be carefully crafted to protect religious liberty.”

Walker applauds Obama’s focus on developing ways to cooperate with organizations helping those in need, and doing it the right way. “But, I do urge the president to ban religious hiring discrimination in government-funded programs.”

The 25-member panel of advisers was created to help the administration partner with religious and neighborhood groups providing social services. The panel is composed of a diverse group of religious and secular leaders with experience in social services, including former BJC General Counsel Melissa Rogers, BJC Board Member William Shaw and Rabbi David Saperstein, a fellow co-chair of religious liberty coalitions.   

The letter urges President Obama to “restore the constitutionally-required safeguards and civil rights protections governing partnerships between government and religiously-affiliated institutions” and recommends three key steps:
1.    Religious organizations should be prohibited from discriminating in hiring on the basis of religion within federally-funded social welfare projects.
2.    The recommendations of the Reform of the Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships Taskforce should be adopted in full.
3.    The Administration should amend existing Executive Orders and make uniform guidance resources for federal agencies on a number of specific issues.

In addition to the Baptist Joint Committee, signers included African American Ministers in Action, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Anti-Defamation League, Interfaith Alliance, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Texas Faith Network, United Methodist Church, United Sikhs and Women of Reform Judaism.

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The Baptist Joint Committee is a 74-year-old, Washington, D.C.-based religious liberty organization that works to defend and extend God-given religious liberty for all, bringing a uniquely Baptist witness to the principle that religion must be freely exercised, neither advanced nor inhibited by government.