Religion and Politics

Are Gay Rights and Religious Liberty Compatible?

At The Atlantic, Molly Ball reports on the current debates around the Employment Non-Discrimination Act and a potential religious exemption to the law, which would ban employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation by federal contractors. After the Hobby Lobby decision, which exempted some corporations from covering contraception, religious groups–including progressive ones–and LGBT-focused groups have clashed over the question of whether President Obama should include a similar exemption in his nondiscrimination executive order, raising fears that the issue could drive a more permanent wedge between gay rights supporters and religious groups. “The religious exemption debate has now been polarized to the point where people are saying, ‘All or nothing,’” said Lanae Erickson Hatalsky, director of social policy for the center-left think tank Third Way. “The narrative that’s now beginning to form is that Democrats are against religion. It’s not true and it’s very dangerous.”

Read at The Atlantic

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