Can churches/religious organizations still fire people for being gay?

[repoman]

Not just priests and pastors...

This is a case in Virginia:

http://spectrum.suntimes.com/news/10/155/4329/virginia-man-says-fired-catholic-church-gay

A Virginia man has filed a formal complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, saying the Catholic Diocese of Richmond unlawfully fired him from his position as executive director of an assisted living facility after finding out he was gay.
John Murphy said the president of the board of directors for St. Francis Home suggested his sexual orientation and marriage to his husband were not problems, but was promptly fired after filing for employee benefits for him and his partner, according to the Washington Blade.

Murphy’s complaint says that Bishop Xavier DiLorenzo appointed a lay representative to fire him after the board of the facility unanimously refused to terminate him.

Murphy said members of the board resigned in protest, the Blade reports.

In July, the EEOC ruled that Title VII preventing job discrimination based on gender applied to sexual orientation as well, according to the Associated Press.

A religious exemption in the law only applies to hiring people who aren’t part of a religious group’s faith.

Sounds crazy as shit.

The last sentence is interesting: say there was an employee who was a member of the faith, but in his/her personal life did things that were very antithetical to that faith (ignore homosexuality for sake of this argument). Say they were a swinger or consumed pork as a "muslim" or "jew". Also, when the person was counseled about it they said they had no guilt or shame in that act and would continue to do it. This will lead to the weakening of the control the religion has (I dislike religion). If it is so watered down it is not the same religion at all. The person could say that they are a muslim or a jew but their actions prove that to be a lie. Or at the very least not the type of muslim or jew that this group wants to be around. I do wonder about the question of Jesus being forgiving and yet also he said "go and sin no more". So is the church supposed to have infinite patience for moral reprobates?

But more to the point, can a religious group say that being gay or doing gay acts is a bar to being part of that faith organization and still have legal ground to stand on? How long before churches are forced to marry gay couples? It happened in Denmark in 2012 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/denmark/9317447/Gay-Danish-couples-win-right-to-marry-in-church.html .

I think that ridiculing this possibility as slippery slope paranoia is misplaced.

I think that religion sucks, but in the old school sense it is about the people in charge saying what the rules are. I am curious to see what will happen if gay muslims try to sue for discrimination by mosques (etc...) in Europe or the U.S.

Maybe the cafeteria christian mode is finally biting them in the ass - the people that hate gays that is. They have thrown out so many restrictions and rules that to keep just the "no gays" rules seems petty.

By the way, I just saw a video that was purported to be two men in Haiti being burned alive for being gay. I shouldn't have clicked it.

Finally, I dislike religion and am in favor of gay marriage. But I am afraid of how the state is getting too much power to force people to do things even if it is for good. I am confused, I guess.

 

[funinspace]

The US government draws a fairly clear distinction between internal church operations and church business operations. If a church (and that includes the RCC which still thinks its britches are too big for national governments) runs a business, it pretty much has to follow the rules for businesses. Tough shit if they don't like the rules; just maybe they should get out of the business of business then. Decades later, we still have churches that preach hate towards inter-racial marriage, and no government entity is forcing those few nutty churches to marry a mixed race couple.

The issue of contraceptive coverage within medical insurance got caught in the neanderthalic Repug warfare on women, which should have went the other way...ignoring just how fucked up the whole medical field is in the US.