No It Doesn’t

Public funding should be for all people, it shouldn’t be used to exclude some people.

ERLC: Child-care proposal threatens religious liberty
The Baptist Press
By Tom Strode
November 16, 2021


Religious freedom concerns for faith-based child-care programs plague President Biden’s Build Back Better Act as it nears apparent action by Congress, according to Southern Baptists’ ethics entity.

The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) and other organizations have urged congressional members to revise provisions in the $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation package.

They say the legislation will prevent faith-based centers and schools from participating in good conscience in the proposal’s expansive pre-kindergarten and child-care programs. Its mandates, the ERLC and others say, would affect the practice of faith-based recipients, if they choose to participate, in such areas as hiring, admissions and teaching. It could open providers to requirements regarding gay and transgender rights that conflict with their religious beliefs, critics say.

“Faith-based groups play a vital role in providing quality child care and pre-K [education] to America’s children,” said Chelsea Sobolik, the ERLC’s director of public policy. “These organizations must have the freedom to serve parents and children according to their religious beliefs.

“Many nonpublic schools intentionally avoid federal financial recipient status because of how it could subject them to troubling provisions related to sexual orientation and gender identity language that raises serious religious liberty concerns,” she said in a written statement. “The Build Back Better proposal must respect the religious freedom of these institutions.”

No they don’t!

Will they accept a person’s child of a different faith?

Will they accept an unmarried mother child?

Will they accept an interracial couples child?

Federal funds should be available for everyone.

Suppose in a rural town the church is the only daycare in town and they do not allow a child of a Muslin and the nearest non-religious daycare is an hour away. Because it is a small town they have need of only one daycare and they refuse children not of their faith and the Muslim family if the only non-Christian family in town, is it right for them to be forced to drive two hours round trip to leave their child off at a daycare?

The House of Representatives version of the budget reconciliation bill, however, would mandate faith-based providers that receive certificates in the expanded program must abide by the bans on religious requirements for hiring and admissions. The legislation must guarantee that recipients “will not be required to adhere to sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) language” in order to participate, the ERLC said.

Yes, that is how it should be.

It wasn’t always like that, back during the Reagan administration religious organizations started elbowing their way in to federal funding even though they were discriminating against protected classes. First it was school busing for parochial schools, then it was for basic education courses such as math and English. Now they want unlimited use of federal funds to discriminate against people who are not of their faith.