Institutional Religious Freedom Alliance

Religious Leaders to the President: Don't Curtail Our Religious Hiring Freedom

Written by IRFA | 07 September 2011

Activists are again pressing the Obama administration to curtail religious hiring by religious organizations that receive government funding. In response, IRFA in July organized a letter from faith leaders to the President, asking him to stand up against the pressure and to maintain current policy.

Hosanna-Tabor: A Big Victory for Religious Freedom

Written by IRFA | 20 January 2012

The US Supreme Court announced on January 11, 2012, a stunning victory for religious freedom. Unlike most church-state decisions, this one was unanimous. The nine justices together administered a sharp rebuff to the federal government, which had argued against the principle upheld by the Supreme Court. That principle is the right of religious organizations to choose their own leaders. Thus the decision vindicated the religious freedom of religious organizations—distinct from the usual focus on the religious rights of individuals. And here the freedom of religious organizations was upheld against a claim of discrimination.

Faith Leaders Protest Narrow Religious Exemption

Written by IRFA | 21 December 2011

On December 21, 2011, some sixty leaders of faith-based organizations or who work with faith-based organizations wrote to President Obama and HHS Secretary Sebelius protesting the very narrow exemption to the health insurance contraceptives mandate and asking that the administration not adopt in its place a different definition that would still only protect some faith-based organizations. An alternative definition has been proposed that would still leave unprotected many faith-based service organizations.

Important Supreme Court "Ministerial" Employment Case

Written by IRFA | 22 April 2011

The Supreme Court on March 28th agreed to take an employment discrimination case involving the "ministerial exception." The Court's eventual ruling will be important for churches. But the case isn't directly relevant for most faith-based groups. That's because their hiring is protected by a different legal provision: the Title VII "religious exemption."

IRFA Featured in Outcomes Magazine

Written by IRFA | 29 December 2010

The Winter, 2010, issue of Outcomes, the quarterly magazine of the Christian Leadership Alliance, features an interview with IRFA President Stanley Carlson-Thies. The Christian Leadership Alliance assists some 10,000 persons from more than 4,500 Christian faith-based organizations to improve how they carry out their faith-based service.

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Basic Issues

Institutional Religious Freedom Alliance

Religious Leaders to the President: Don't Curtail Our Religious Hiring Freedom

Hosanna-Tabor: A Big Victory for Religious Freedom

Faith Leaders Protest Narrow Religious Exemption

Important Supreme Court "Ministerial" Employment Case

IRFA Featured in Outcomes Magazine

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