While a broad swath of the religious community whole-heartedly supports the ability for all people to earn a living without fear or discrimination, changes to employment laws can be confusing.
Here are some resources to help explain to your colleagues, community and congregation exactly what the bill does (and does not) do, and why people of faith, no matter what their tradition teaches about gay rights, can support this bill.
Will this bill change the workplace as we know it?
No, because the bill is based on traditional American values that have long governed the workplace. The bill creates a level playing field and ensures that all people are judged on their workplace performance and behavior—not on the basis of personal characteristics like sexual orientation or gender identity. It will allow gay, lesbian, and transgender Americans to participate in the traditional workplace, abiding by the same rules that apply to all other employees.
If my religion teaches that homosexuality is wrong, why should I support this bill?
The bill is consistent with core religious and American values. It furthers traditional religious values like the Golden Rule, because in the workplace, as in other settings, we should treat others as we’d like to be treated. It also protects the human dignity of all people, ensures that all employees are evaluated based on their workplace performance, and carefully guards the rights of religious employers.
Do any religious organizations support this bill?
Yes. The United Methodist Church, the Episcopal Church, the Presbyterian Church, Muslim Advocates, African American Ministers in Action, the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, and the Union for Reform Judaism are among the many religious organizations that support the bill.
In addition, even organizations who have taken no position on the bill as a whole support the language of its religious exemption. Three major religious organizations who took no position on ENDA itself in 2007—the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, and the General Conference of Seventh Day Adventists—issued a joint statement supporting the religious exemption that remains in the current version of the bill. They wrote: “We believe this language provides an indispensable protection of the free exercise rights of religious organizations and strongly support its inclusion in ENDA.”
Q&A Excerpted and adapted from Third Way’s “Questions and Answers about the Employment Non-Discrimination Act” Please download the full document here.