Religious Exemptions Archives - American Atheists

California Bill Would Give Special Development Privileges to Religious Organizations

American Atheists — Wed, 03 Jun 2020 21:05:56 +0000

Sacramento, California—Today, the religious equality organization American Atheists urged the California Assembly Committee on Appropriations to amend AB 1851. This well-intentioned but unconstitutional bill would allow religious organizations to bypass state zoning restrictions. More specifically, AB 1851 would allow a large church to convert a portion of its parking lot into housing without replacing the parking spaces required by local ordinances. “While proponents might argue that AB 1851 encourages religious institutions to house the homeless population, it also creates special privileges for religious organizations in violation of the Establishment Clause,” explained Alison Gill, Vice President for Legal and Policy at American Atheists. “It does not allow secular nonprofit organizations to make use of the zoning exemption to provide housing for homeless people.” “Fortunately, lawmakers can avoid constitutional concerns by simply making the exemption available to nonprofit organizations more broadly, rather than just religious institutions,” she added. In addition, AB 1851 would not require that the exempted religious developers provide the new housing to homeless people. In fact, a religious organization could convert land and parking spaces to market-rate housing and achieve a significant profit on land that is tax-free. This is a problem. “We applaud your consideration of unconventional means to address the dire needs of homeless people in California,” Gill told the committee. “However, the current exemption is underinclusive, misaligned, and likely unconstitutional. We urge you to consider amending the AB 1851 to create an exemption for secular and religious nonprofits alike to provide housing for homeless people in California.” Image by ray_explores under CC BY 2.0

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Stop President Trump’s Broad New Privileges for Religious Employers!

American Atheists — Mon, 26 Aug 2019 20:20:42 +0000

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) recently issued a new proposed rule that not only greatly expands the number of federal contractors who can claim religious exemptions but also expands the scope of those exemptions. Under this rule, any federal contractor—even a construction company, janitorial service, or healthcare provider—can claim a religious mission and refuse to hire atheists, religious minorities, LGBTQ people, even single parents, women who use contraception or get an abortion, or anyone else they disapprove of. If you work for a federal contractor and don’t share the same religious beliefs as your boss, you could lose your job. This affects a huge sector of the economy—in 2018, the government spent $560 billion on federal contracts, and in 2017, there were over 4.1 million workers employed by government contractors. We need your help to oppose this rule. Please help us tell the Trump Administration that this is not acceptable! When a business contracts with the federal government to provide services to the American people, it should be held to a high level of accountability. Instead, this rule would give such businesses a license to discriminate—just by claiming to be religious. No one should get special privileges based on their religious beliefs—and they certainly shouldn’t be able to use them to discriminate against others! Please take action now and share this message with everyone you can. September 16th is the deadline for us to send as many comments as possible to DOL. If you or someone you know will be directly affected by these broad new religious exemptions, this is your chance to tell DOL. Together we can stop this outrageous new assault on religious equality—but the Administration needs to hear from you. Please take action now! Image by Gage Skidmore under CC BY-SA 2.0

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Atheists: Labor Department Rules Allowing Religious Discrimination Are ‘Disgusting, Un-American’

American Atheists — Thu, 15 Aug 2019 18:06:09 +0000

Cranford, NJ—Today, the Department of Labor announced a proposed rule that would allow government contractors to ignore civil rights and anti-discrimination laws under the guise of religion. It is estimated that nearly a quarter of Americans work at employers with federal contracts. In response, American Atheists’ President Nick Fish released the following statement: Since day one of this administration, religion has been weaponized against anyone who is not a member of the Trump/Pence band of sycophants and apologists on the extreme Religious Right. The vast majority of Americans understand that religion is not a license to discriminate or an excuse to ignore the law. But instead of listening to the American people, President Trump is kowtowing to Christian nationalists who have twisted ‘religious freedom’ to mean the ‘freedom’ to attack anyone they don’t like. We know exactly who is going to pay the price for this Administration’s radical redefinitions of ‘religious freedom.’ Atheists, LGBTQ people, single parents, religious minorities, and even people who are the ‘wrong kind’ of Christian could lose their jobs because of this rule. If this rule were to go into effect, the Trump Administration would gladly give our tax dollars to companies that hang a ‘Non-Evangelicals need not apply’ sign on their front door. It’s disgusting, it’s un-American, and, after more than two years, it’s unsurprising. If you oppose the Trump administration’s latest attempt to use religion as an excuse to discriminate, take 30 seconds right now and sign our petition! ### Image by Gage Skidmore under CC BY-SA 2.0.

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American Atheists Submits Testimony Opposing Dangerous Religious Exemptions in Health Care

American Atheists — Tue, 13 Aug 2019 20:00:25 +0000

Washington, DC—Today, American Atheists submitted testimony opposing the Department of Health and Human Services’ Affordable Care Act 1557 proposed rule that would exacerbate discrimination in government-funded health care. This proposed rule creates broad and unjustifiable religious exemptions that allow hospitals and medical professionals to deny care to some of the most vulnerable patients, including women and LGBTQ Americans. “Adding a religious exemption opens the door for discrimination and emboldens health care providers to deny patients care, threatening the health and well-being of millions of patients,” said Alison Gill, American Atheists’ Vice President for Legal and Policy. “American Atheists urges the Department of Health and Human Services to withdraw the proposed rule in its entirety,” she wrote.

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Stop the Department of Health & Human Services from Creating New Religious Exemptions

American Atheists — Thu, 01 Aug 2019 14:44:28 +0000

Last month, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a new proposed rule which eliminates protections against healthcare discrimination based on language access, transgender status, and sex stereotyping, as well as for patients who have previously had an abortion. Moreover, the rule would create a broad religious exemption to allow discrimination in healthcare. The proposed rule would undermine civil rights and put vulnerable populations at risk. It would make it more difficult for anyone experiencing discrimination in health care to protect their rights, including people with limited English proficiency and people suffering from chronic health conditions, including HIV. This rule would also allow medical professionals to turn away patients who need health care solely based on their religious beliefs. We need your help to oppose this rule. Please tell HHS that you oppose efforts to put religious beliefs above patient’s health! Together we can defeat this attack on health care access and vulnerable patients. Please take action now and share this message with everyone you can. August 13th is the deadline for us to send as many comments as possible to HHS. If you or someone you know will be directly affected by the removal of these critical nondiscrimination protections, this is your chance to tell HHS. If you’re a health care professional, let them know why you think this rule is wrong! No one should be denied care due to the religious beliefs of others. Patients deserve to know their rights. Please take action now—people’s lives depend on it.

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US Department of Education Proposes Dangerous Religious Exemptions

American Atheists — Thu, 25 Jul 2019 17:55:28 +0000

Cranford, NJ—This month, American Atheists submitted comments opposing the U.S. Department of Education’s plan to introduce dangerous new exemptions for religious institutions of higher education. The department’s proposed rule would unconstitutionally favor religious schools and seminaries over secular colleges and universities. Institutions that claim to have religious missions would receive wide-ranging exemptions from requirements for accreditation and recognized standards of education, decreasing the overall quality of America’s educational system. In addition, this proposed rule would harm students. By being able to ignore accreditation standards, religious colleges and universities could implement discriminatory policies and practices. Under the new rule, accrediting agencies would have no power to act as watchdogs to protect women and LGBTQ students. Should an accrediting agency even dare step in, the Department could punish the agency by revoking its status. “American Atheists has grave concerns about these provisions and believes that the proposed changes are unwarranted and harmful,” Alison Gill, American Atheists’ Vice President for Legal and Policy, wrote in her comments to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Postsecondary Education. “We strongly urge you to remove these religion provisions from any final rule.” Image by Taber Andrew Bain via Flickr under CC 2.0

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Atheists: New “Unalienable Rights” Commission Rife with Religious Extremists

American Atheists — Tue, 23 Jul 2019 20:59:05 +0000

Cranford, NJ—Today, American Atheists joined 178 organizations to call for scrapping the Department of State’s recently announced “Commission on Unalienable Rights.” American Atheists denounced the preponderance of religious supremacists serving on the commission. The commission’s chair, Mary Ann Glendon, has called religious freedom the “first of freedoms,” believing it should trump “other rights, claims, and interests.” In addition, she has referred disparagingly to protectors of church/state separation as “militant secularists.” Another member of the commission has argued against contraception even when it’s used to limit the spread of disease. A third commissioner member has stated that “the unavoidable message” of same sex marriage “is a profoundly false and damaging one.” A fourth has called questions of gender identity “a matter of mental illness or some other pathology” and “a mark of a heartless culture.” American Atheists and all other signatories condemned the goal of this biased commission: to categorize certain rights, such as LGBTQ and women’s rights, as “ad hoc,” as lesser than religious rights. “It is a fundamental tenet of human rights that all rights are universal and equal,” American Atheists and the other signatories told Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. “[T]he reference to ‘ad hoc’ rights resembles language used by autocratic and dictatorial governments, which frequently speak in terms of a hierarchy of rights.” “A body created by this administration, with the mandate and members you have made public, lacks real credibility,” the organization affirmed. “Its findings will have no weight or ability to redefine human rights.”

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American Atheists Joins 125 National Organizations to Oppose Religious Discrimination in Foster Care and Adoption

American Atheists — Mon, 22 Jul 2019 21:05:06 +0000

Cranford, NJ—Today, American Atheists joined 125 national organizations to urge Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar to stop considering any proposed regulation that would allow taxpayer-funded foster care and adoption agencies to discriminate in the name of religion. “Ensuring that taxpayer-funded child placement agencies abide by nondiscrimination laws is not hostile to religion. Turning away people seeking to engage in government-funded services because they fail a religious test is,” said the letter, signed by American Atheists and other members and allies of the Coalition Against Religious Discrimination (CARD). In January, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) used a gross misinterpretation of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) to allow South Carolina foster care agencies to discriminate against prospective volunteers and parents who are Catholic, Jewish, Unitarian Universalist, and atheist. South Carolina’s discriminatory policy harms children by reducing the number of qualified foster and adoptive parents able to provide them a permanent home. CARD cautioned HHS against using the same flawed analysis of RFRA to justify expanding SC’s exemption to the rest of the country; a nationwide license-to-discrimate would harm even more of the 400,000 children in the foster care system and the over 100,000 children who are waiting to be adopted by a forever family. “The government should never fund religious discrimination, especially when it is vulnerable children who will pay the price,” said American Atheists and the other signatories.

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Proposed HHS “Religious Freedom” Complaint Form Lumps Together Victims of Discrimination and Perpetrators

American Atheists — Tue, 21 May 2019 20:02:53 +0000

Washington, DC—Last Friday, American Atheists submitted comments to the Department of Health and Human Services urging them to withdraw “confusing” and “overly burdensome” proposed changes to its civil rights complaint form. American Atheists condemns the changes because they conflate discrimination against patients and religiously motivated denial of service by healthcare providers. “There is a world of difference between being denied healthcare and refusing to provide it,” said Nick Fish, American Atheists’ President. “We know that patients are too-frequently denied care, and this administration’s actions are making the problem worse. HHS should be protecting patients, not enabling healthcare providers to use religion to jeopardize the health and safety of those needing care.” “HHS’s proposed complaint form compounds its overly broad religious refusal rule. It equates civil rights complaints with complaints from providers who wish to deny care based on their religion,” said Alison Gill, Vice President for Legal and Policy. “The administration’s goal is to artificially inflate the number of these complaints in order to justify spending hundreds of millions of dollars to appease the Administration’s Christian extremist base.” “At a bare minimum, the department should create a new form dedicated specifically to religious refusals,” added Gill. “By including those who are denied needed care with those who would turn away patients, the proposed form discourages complaints and frustrates efforts to analyze and report the data collected.” “This is more proof of this Administration prioritizing religious supremacy over protecting atheists, women, LGBTQ Americans, and religious minorities from discrimination,” said Fish. “It’s unbelievable that the Administration would lump together victims of real discrimination with the perpetrators of such acts.” This proposed rule is part of a larger pattern of the Trump administration putting religion ahead of health care. Over the last several months, American Atheists has condemned the administration for other questionable HHS rules including the Denial of Care Rule, which allows religious health care providers to refuse to treat patients they disapprove of, as well as the “domestic gag rule,” which bars many doctors from discussing abortion and diverts Title X funding to religious organizations. The City of San Francisco has already brought a lawsuit to enjoin the new religious refusal rule, and additional suits are expected.

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Puertorriqueños: ¡Actúen ahora para oponerse a excepciones religiosas peligrosas!

American Atheists — Fri, 17 May 2019 20:06:30 +0000

Legisladores en Puerto Rico pronto votarán dos proyectos de ley que crean nuevas excepciones religiosas. Primero, PS. 1253 permitirá que las organizaciones religiosas reciban fondos públicos mientras se involucran en proselitismo religioso y discriminan a las personas que no comparten sus creencias. Es injusto dar dinero de los contribuyentes a grupos que se niegan a servir a todos los puertorriqueños. Proporcionar fondos de los contribuyentes a grupos religiosos y al mismo tiempo crear privilegios especiales para permitirles discriminar a otros es incorrecto. Estas leyes tendrán consecuencias negativas impredecibles y de gran alcance para la salud, la educación y los servicios sociales de los puertorriqueños. ¡Por favor actúe ahora! ¡Dígales a los miembros de la Comisión sobre Relaciones Federales, Políticas y Económicas del Senado que se opongan a los esfuerzos para crear nuevas y amplias excepciones religiosas! En segundo lugar, la legislatura también está considerando PS. 1254, que afirma prohibir las terapias de reparación para jóvenes por parte de profesionales con licencia, pero a su vez crea excepciones para iglesias y clérigos que permiten que estas prácticas nocivas continúen. Las terapias de reparación son prácticas peligrosas y desacreditadas que se aprovechan de las familias y ponen en riesgo la salud y la seguridad de los niños. Ningún joven puertorriqueño debe estar sujeto a esta conducta abusiva, y nadie debe estar exento de la ley sólo por sus creencias religiosas. ¡Por favor, tome acción ahora! ¡Necesitamos urgentemente su ayuda para detener estas leyes peligrosas!

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