The Supreme Court ruling protecting the rights of gay and transgender workers could have a major impact on how conservative Christian groups run their own institutions.
LGBT people have been prevented from working at many faith-based organizations, like schools or nonprofits, according to The New York Times. The institutions cite religious beliefs that sex should only be between a man and woman who are married, the newspaper noted.
“No question it is going to make it harder to defend our religious freedom, as far as an organization being able to hire people of like mind,” said Franklin Graham, who heads the large evangelical relief group Samaritan’s Purse.
And in a Facebook post, he wrote: "As a Bible-believing follower of Jesus Christ, my rights should be protected. Even if my sincerely held religious beliefs might be the minority, I still have a right to hold them.”
The Supreme Court, in a 6-3 vote, ruled Monday that a key provision of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects gays, lesbian and transgender people from discrimination in employment.
Russell Moore, president of the public policy arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, said the ruling would have “seismic implications” for religious freedoms.
“There’s a common assumption in secular America that as the culture changes that evangelicals and Roman Catholicism and other forms of religion will morph and change along with it,” he said. “I don’t think that is true.”
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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