On November 7 the U.S. Senate approved the passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) by a vote of 64-32, with ten Republican senators voting in favor of the bill. While ENDA is not expected to pass the U.S. House of Representatives, the bill still certainly raises concern for the future of religious liberty in this nation.
There is little dispute that discrimination is wrong. And the Catholic Church especially believes in respecting the intrinsic human dignity of all people. However, ENDA is not so much about discrimination and promoting tolerance, no matter how much it claims to be. It is more about special treatment.
ENDA would affect those who believe in traditional marriage, but it would also involve undue government intrusion in the workplace of those businesses accused of discriminating against those who are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender. This may occur simply because an employer holds a position affirming traditional marriage or seeks to consider the consequences of the behavior of transgendered persons at the workplace.
Problematic situations also may arise with cross-dressing employees wishing to use facilities of the opposite sex. The bill rejects not only the true version of marriage, but of gender, and presents a distorted viewpoint of both, creating confusion and working to further redefine marriage.
From a United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) November 4 News Release explaining opposition of ENDA, posted again on November 7 in reaction to the Senate’s passage of the bill:
(4) rejects the biological basis of gender by defining “gender identity” as something people may choose at variance with their biological sex; and…
Besides the issues with “gender identity,” the USCCB also begins the statement of opposition by mentioning that “ENDA rejects biological basis of gender [and] equates sexual orientation with race[.]” In Fact Sheet #130, “ENDA Threatens Fundamental Civil Liberties,” from The Heritage Foundation, there is an entire section devoted to how “Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Are Unlike Race:”
- Jim Crow laws represented pervasive, onerous, and legally enshrined obstacles to employment based on race. There is no similar history of society-wide legal prohibitions on employment based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
- Voluntary actions and market forces have emerged that undermine the clamor for federal intervention: for example, 88percent of Fortune 500 companies prohibit employment decisions based on sexual orientation.
- While race is usually readily apparent, the groups seeking special status under ENDA are not defined by objective characteristics. Sexual orientation and gender identity are commonly understood to be subjective, self-disclosed, and self-defined.
- Unlike race, sexual orientation and gender identity are usually understood to include behaviors. Decisions reasonably taking into account the behavior of employees are core employment decisions, best left to businesses themselves—not the federal government.
The Catholic Church cannot expect to forever live in a world free from oppression, and the Church knows this. In fact, even in the United States this has shown to be the case. The Catholic Church has faced battles with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) of the Obama administration and its contraception mandate. The Church also has been fighting to defend marriage. The Supreme Court’s decision on DOMA struck a blow to the Church and all those who hold a view of traditional marriage. ENDA goes even further by affecting the religious, as well as civil and economic liberties of businesses, as outlined by the Heritage Foundation’s fact sheet. But the Church is not giving up.
Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone of San Francisco, who chairs the USCCB’s Subcommittee on the Promotion and Defense of Marriage and wrote the letter from the USCCB, has spoken of the ruling on DOMA and ENDA passage as putting marriage at a “critical point.” Archbishop Cordileone knows that the fight is not an easy one, but it is one he is dedicated to.
With a vote of 203-17 and five abstentions, the bishops have extended, through 2016, the “Call to Prayer for Life, Marriage and Religious Freedom.” It was initially supposed to coincide with the Year of Faith, which has now ended, and come to an end on the feast of Christ the King, on November 24. Archbishop Cordileone has said that calls for prayer and fasting have been seen as favorable.
With House Speaker John Boehner not supporting ENDA and this call to prayer from the USCCB, we can look forward to having our fight full of faith. For it is a fight for the biblical truth and is one dedicated to protecting marriage in this country, and the fundamental rights of those who support it.
Comment by Bishop Andrew Gerales Gentry on November 17, 2013 at 7:36 pm
Does the “fight for biblical truth” include the right of men to have concubines as in the Old Testament, or the right of a widow to sleep with her dead husband’s brother also taught in the Bible? Does it resolve the issue of divorce that at least half of Christendom allows whilst the Roman Church does not or does actually by calling it “annulment”? Does it include “the Biblical “truth” that women should be SUBJECT to their husbands? Marriage equality does NOT in any way threaten or undermine “traditional marriage” any more than bi-racial marriage did or does! No one especially the government is telling anyone that they cannot be as “traditional” as want to be it is simply telling theocrats they cannot impose their beliefs on anyone else be they Roman or “evangelical” or Islamic!
Comment by Gerry McDaniel on November 18, 2013 at 12:51 am
The “fight for Biblical Truth” comes with a tool box filled with time tested tools. One of those tools is context. Historical and literary context identifies the “right” of men to have concubines to be be limited to the ancient societies just as Bishop Gentry indicated. So also the right of a widow to sleep with her dead husband’s brother. Bishop Gentry need go no further than to ask a Rabbi regarding these Jews laws to know the truth.
The three basic criteria for marriage; age, gender, kinship are as relevant today as they were millennium ago when they were first put in place. I assure you Bishop Gentry avidly defends two of those three criteria.
What we see here from Bishop Gentry is bad exegesis caused by an ideologically limited tool box. You know the old saying, “When all you have is a hammer everything looks like a nail.”
Comment by joey on November 18, 2013 at 2:14 pm
“There is little dispute that discrimination is wrong. And the Catholic Church especially believes in respecting the intrinsic human dignity of all people. However, ENDA is not so much about discrimination and promoting tolerance, no matter how much it claims to be. It is more about special treatment.”
So why doesn’t the Church actually promote and plan a program to stop this discrimination. I’ve heard and read from many Catholics saying what you are saying, but there is nothing being done.
Additionally, the so called “fact sheet” is wrong in one point: “◾Unlike race, sexual orientation and gender identity are usually understood to include behaviors.” Sexual orientation does not include behavior at all from a Catholic viewpoint. Same-sex attraction is not the equivalent of acting upon the desire.