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https://religionnews.com/2019/...le-than-you-realize/

(RNS) — On Nov. 1, the Trump administration proposed a new rule that could allow over $30 billion in Department of Health and Human Services grants to flow to organizations that openly refuse to serve people of faith, women and LGBTQ people.

The administration claims that this rule only applies to child welfare agencies.

And yet, the reality is far worse. Foster care accounts for only about 1% of all HHS grant funding. The proposed rule allocates over $30 billion to HHS grantees who run critical service programs like Meals on Wheels, Head Start, youth homelessness services, services for survivors of domestic violence, and more.

It is clear that as impeachment proceedings ramp up, President Donald Trump is stepping up his attempts to pander to his conservative white evangelical base. Though the administration’s talking points suggest the rule is a matter of religious liberty, it is not. The real objective is to appeal to his base’s view that there is no room in America for anyone who does not look, think or act exactly as they do. And he is carrying out this objective by discriminating against the vast majority of the rest of us who identify as people of faith.

In fact, HHS invited discrimination explicitly against people of faith earlier this year. Miracle Hill Ministries, a Protestant child welfare agency in South Carolina, openly discriminated against Jewish and Catholic prospective foster parents using federal tax dollars. Those parents sued, and while the cases were pending, HHS proactively granted the state special permission to allow its child welfare agencies to discriminate.

This proposed rule allows this discrimination at a much larger scale. It invites discrimination against people of all faiths and no faith, against women and against LGBTQ people. It removes clear and comprehensive protections currently in place for people seeking services, often from lifesaving programs.  We’ve already seen the consequences of this kind of discrimination. In 2015, a pediatrician in Michigan refused to care for the daughter of one married couple in Michigan, Jami and Krista Contreras, because the girl had two moms.

LGBTQ rights advocates have rightly been outspoken in opposition to the idea that publicly funded organizations have a right to shut them out. As a result, almost all commentary about discrimination in child welfare agencies like Miracle Hill has focused on the potential impact on prospective parents from the LGBTQ community.

As a lead organizer of the Faith for Equality coalition, a national body of faith-based organizations advocating proactively for nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ people, I know that all of our rights are as intertwined as our communities. If service providers are allowed to discriminate against moms like Jami and Krista, they could as easily refuse care to me or my Muslim family. We will not stand idly by as any of our rights are stripped away.

Faith communities should join in condemning this administration’s attempts to discriminate against us all. As a Muslim, I know quite well that this administration cares very little about many faith communities.

Less than 24 hours before HHS announced this rule, it was reported that the administration is considering adding up to five new countries to the list of those whose citizens are prohibited from entering the U.S. under the travel restrictions commonly known as the Muslim ban.

Enough of my community members are already separated from their families; they cannot visit sick relatives nor attend their weddings or funerals. Yet the Trump administration claims that keeping families apart will somehow keep our nation safe, wasting government resources that could otherwise be used to stop those who would do us harm.

As a person of faith, I take great offense to both of the administration’s attacks on religious liberty. Both are discriminatory, and indeed neither of them actually solves any problems.  

Fortunately, Americans of all faith backgrounds have come together with a common purpose like never before and are fighting to protect America’s religious freedom and other civil rights. As people of faith, we know we are better as a nation when we stand together, even as our own president tries to tear us apart.

*For Entertainment Purposes Only* (mainly mine...)

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wow,,,,  that was a bit crazy.

as far as the gay side,,, when looking at different charity organizations I look at how much of their money actually goes to helping,,, then I don't blame because they don't help a outspoken rude minority of our population.   

Muslim?  the biggest haters of gays?   abuser of women,,, sexual predators of children?

1130 posted:

wow,,,,  that was a bit crazy.

as far as the gay side,,, when looking at different charity organizations I look at how much of their money actually goes to helping,,, then I don't blame because they don't help a outspoken rude minority of our population.   

Muslim?  the biggest haters of gays?   abuser of women,,, sexual predators of children?

 

You read an article about discrimination, and then ended your comment with a discriminatory statement... but you're always complaining about being called a racist

i've given you too much credit

Last edited by Naio

a pediatrician in Michigan refused to care for the daughter of one married couple in Michigan, Jami and Krista Contreras, because the girl had two moms.

As was the doctor's right to do. Another doctor saw the baby and the doctor didn't make a big deal out of refusing...she wasn't even at the office...she was very professional...but yeah...of course they had to sue to force someone to go against their religious beliefs. That harms no one for them to see another doctor.

 "After much prayer following your prenatal, I felt that I would not be able to develop the personal patient-doctor relationships that I normally do with my patients," the letter read. "We do not keep prenatal information once we have our meetings so I had no way to contact you. I should have spoken with you directly that day...please know that I believe that God gives us free choice and I would never judge anyone based on what they do with that free choice."

  Vesna Roi

It turns out Roi has free choice, too. In the state of Michigan, there are no laws that protect lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender families from discrimination. "Under current Michigan law, a doctor has an absolute right to refuse medical treatment on the basis of sexual orientation," legal analyst Charlie Langton told CBS Detroit.

The American Medical Association says that while physicians cannot refuse to care for patients based on sexual orientation, doctors can decline to provide a specific treatment sought by an individual if it is "incompatible with the physician's personal, religious, or moral beliefs."

Roi told the Detroit Free Press that she could not comment on the family's case, citing federal privacy laws. But she emphasized how much she cares for her patients. "My life is taking care of the babies," Roi told the paper. "I love my families, my patients. I love my kids. And I have become very close with all my patients."

 

 

Last edited by Jutu
1130 posted:

wow,,,,  that was a bit crazy.

as far as the gay side,,, when looking at different charity organizations I look at how much of their money actually goes to helping,,, then I don't blame because they don't help a outspoken rude minority of our population.   

Muslim?  the biggest haters of gays?   abuser of women,,, sexual predators of children?

I agree with you...it is odd that as a Muslim who claims to have a problem with things in this administration...he doesn't have the same problem with what the muslims are doing to the same people he mentioned.  

 Never blindly take the word of any democrat about anything! Always check behind them because you can be sure they alter and twist things for their own agenda. I would love to ask this Muslim to show us videos of gay people going into Muslim bakeries and requesting wedding cakes for same sex marriages...or asking a muslim family to adopt a Jewish child and so on and so forth.

 

Miracle Hill Ministries, a Protestant child welfare agency in South Carolina, openly discriminated against Jewish and Catholic prospective foster parents using federal tax dollars. Those parents sued, and while the cases were pending, HHS proactively granted the state special permission to allow its child welfare agencies to discriminate.

 

COLUMBIA, S.C. — The federal government agreed Wednesday to allow federally funded foster care agencies in South Carolina to deny services to same-sex or non-Christian couples.

The waiver issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will allow Greenville’s Miracle Hill Ministries to continue as a state-supported foster care agency.

 

As part of the waiver’s requirements, any family that Miracle Hill does not allow to take care of foster children must be referred to other agencies or the state Department of Social Services.

 

McMaster has said he would have asked for a waiver for a Jewish or Muslim organization because he said the issue isn’t Christianity but the constitutional protection of religion.

Last edited by Jutu

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