Worries about Discrimination under Faith-Based Initiative Are Unfounded, Say Some

May 28, 2001

Source: The Washington Post

On May 28, 2001, The Washington Post published an opinion piece by Nathan J. Diament, the director of public policy for the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, in which he rebutted one of the criticisms of Bush's faith-based initiative. "Now opponents of the faith-based initiative...claim that allowing federal grants to institutions enjoying the exemption [from the Civil Rights Act of 1964] amounts to subsidizing employment discrimination with taxpayer dollars. Their assumption is that faith-based hiring by institutions of faith is equal in nature to every other despicable act of discrimination in all other contexts. This is simply not true...At their core, religious groups don't care about where you come from or what you look like, only what you believe...Slandering our sacred institutions with the charge of bigotry should be ruled out of bounds."