A bill introduced in Congress today would prevent the federal government from using funding and tax benefits to strong-arm religious organizations into compromising their beliefs on marriage and sexuality.
The Fair Treatment of Religious Organizations Act, which Utah Congressman Blake Moore introduced in the House of Representatives Friday, would prohibit the federal government from refusing religious organizations tax-exempt status or federal funding eligibility based solely on their beliefs about marriage and sexuality.
The act addresses legislative uncertainty caused by the Supreme Court’s infamous ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County, which changed the definition of “sex” in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to include sexual orientation and so-called gender identity
“The Fair Treatment of Religious Organizations Act [establishes] clear, enforceable standards that protect religious beliefs and practices and prevent the government from weaponizing tax-exempt status or federal funding eligibility against these organizations,” Representative Moore explained in a press release.
Congress created Title VII to protect women from workplace discrimination. When the Supreme Court redefined sex in Title VII to include protections for sexual orientation and “gender identity,” it didn’t just undermine Congress’ original intent — it gave left-wing idealogues legal power over religious employers.
Representative Moore’s press explains:
Bostock left religious organizations in legal uncertainty — their traditional beliefs and practices on human sexuality and marriage now potentially characterized as a form of sex discrimination under federal law.
If found in violation of federal law, religious organizations can lose federal funding and their charitable tax status — financial blows which can be impossible to recover from.
Justice Neil Gorsuch explicitly acknowledged the problem Bostock posed for religious organizations in his majority opinion, writing:
We are … deeply concerned with preserving the promise of the free exercise of religion enshrined in our Constitution; that guarantee lies at the heart of our Constitution.
Though Justice Gorsuch went so far as to sketch out what religious exemptions to Bostock might look like —rooted in the First Amendment, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and existing legal exemptions for religious employers — the protections remained theoretical, and religious organizations remained on eggshells.
For years following the 2020 Bostock ruling, federal agencies attempted to adopt Title VII’s expansive definition of “sex” as their own.
It was only this January that the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) voted to rescind its “Enforcement Guidance on Harassment in the Workplace,” which would have forced federal and private sector employers — including religious employers — to abide by Bostock’s expanded definition of sex discrimination, including forcing women to share private spaces with biological men.
“The Harassment Guidance was an unlawful document and overstepped our authority,” EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas told the Daily Citizen’s Zach Mettler in a recent interview. “There are two sexes.”
The Fair Treatment of Religious Organizations Act codifies the protections Justice Gorsuch described in the Bostock ruling so religious organizations never have to fear this specific kind of administrative overreach again.
“Religious liberty is foundational to all that makes America great and genuinely exceptional,” Tim Goeglein, Focus on the Family’s Vice President of Government and External Relations, summarized the bill’s significance, concluding:
Representative Moore’s Fair Treatment of Religious Organizations Act codifies that constitutionally protected right.
Focus on the Family is grateful for his boldness and fidelity to [America’s] first principles.
Additional Articles and Resources
EEOC Protects Women’s Spaces in Federal Workplaces
Andrea Lucas Leads the EEOC: Restoring Agency with Truth and Common Sense
Eighteen States Sue EEOC Over Workplace Mandates Endangering Women and Free Speech
EEOC Releases Major Guidance Ending Many Workplace Protections for Women
‘Not Only Arrogant, But Wrong’: Justice Alito Slams SCOTUS Majority for Redefining ‘Sex’
