Concerns exist about how this new White House Office can function without running afoul of the principle of church-state separation. ADL has suggested safeguards that are designed to protect religious freedom and prevent government and religion from becoming entangled. Because they are designed to ensure that constitutional guarantees of religious liberty are protected, these safeguards are non-negotiable. Notably, these organizations have extensive experience and success with the kind of safeguards discussed above. ADL is confident that such organizations would continue to thrive, as they have for decades, with the old safeguards.
Religion plays an important and unique role in our society.
Indeed, the framers of the Constitution thought that religion was so important that, by writing the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the Constitution, they tried to prevent government from entangling itself with religion. The special safeguards ADL wishes to see included in the law reflect this tradition. Since then, many programs involving hundreds of religious organizations have received funds. For example, one lawsuit in Texas alleged that a job training program used proselytizing and teaching from the Bible to fulfill its contract with the state of Texas. Another suit, in Kentucky, alleges that a state-funded children s service provider fired a worker because she did not share her employer s religious beliefs about homosexuality.