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By Josef Kuhn (Religion News Service), Updated: Monday, September 19, 4:50 PM
WASHINGTON — Dozens of religious and civil rights organizations challenged President Obama to fulfill a campaign promise to end religious discrimination in federally funded jobs.
“Mr. President, we have been patiently waiting,” said the open letter sent on Monday (Sept. 19). “If you have reversed your policy position on the issue of government-funded religious discrimination, we need to know that.”
The coalition of 56 religious, education, civil rights and health organizations expressed “deep concern” about comments Obama made in July that religious organizations have “more leeway” to “hire somebody who is a believer of that particular religious faith.”
The letter also confronts Obama with a statement he made in Zanesville, Ohio, in July 2008: “If you get a federal grant, you can’t use that grant money to proselytize to the people you help and you can’t discriminate against them — or against the people you hire — on the basis of their religion.”
www.washingtonpost.com/on-faith/groups-press-obama-on-religious-hiring/2011/09/19/gIQAwCr3fK_story.html
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