Editor's Note: As of Sept. 12, only four days remained to submit public comments on this proposed regulation. Give the intersection of church and state involved in the following proposal, we felt it appropriate to draw attention once more to what's at risk. In the words of the Center for American Progress: "... the Labor Department proposed a rule that would allow pretty much any federal contractor to define itself as religious and engage in discriminatory behavior under the guise of religious freedom. One in 5 Americans works for a federal contractor. [Therefore, if the rule passes], 1 in 5 Americans will have their civil rights protections undermined."
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Frances Perkins, U.S. labor secretary for Franklin D. Roosevelt and the first woman cabinet member, must be spinning in heaven – and not from delight.
Frances Perkins
Frances Perkins was U.S. labor secretary for President Franklin D. Roosevelt and architect of many of the New Deal's economic reforms. She was also a devout Episcopalian. (Photo Courtesy of Frances Perkins Center).
I learned about Miss Perkins when I was an American studies major at the University of South Florida. She is an unsung “she-roe” of American history for her stature as a female leader, but even more for championing the rights of U.S. workers. Because of Miss Perkins, we have federally mandated 40-hour work weeks, minimum wage, unemployment and worker’s compensation, abolition of child labor, federal aid to the states for unemployment, and Social Security, among other benefits. She was a prime architect of FDR’s New Deal that pulled the United States out of the worst economic depression it had ever seen. Many of us are here today because of what Miss Perkins’ reforms did to help our grandparents rise out of poverty.
What even many history books don’t acknowledge is that Frances Perkins was a woman of great Christian faith. According to the Frances Perkins Center, she was “a faithful Episcopalian throughout her adult life. … During her busy years as Labor Secretary, she spent a day each month in retreat at an Episcopal convent in Catonsville, Maryland.” The Episcopal Church counts her as one of its saints.
That’s why I’m sure that Miss Perkins (she never married) is aghast at the Trump Administration’s latest attempt to scale back – in the name of religious “tolerance” – the rights of workers at companies that have federal contracts, depending upon the employer’s religious beliefs.
Although in disarray after the departure of Anthony Acosta (the prosecutor who gave sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein a sweetheart deal on his sex offender sentence), the U.S. Labor Department has put forth a regulation intended to “clarify” the exemption for faith-based employers who take on federal jobs. In a nutshell, the proposed regulation, RIN 1250-AA09, aims to broaden the rights of faith-based employers to hire and fire workers whose characteristics don’t meet their particular standards of faith, without being accused of discrimination. For example:
- An evangelical Christian employer could refuse to hire a gay, lesbian or transgender person because their sexual orientation or gender identity doesn’t conform to the employer’s interpretation of their faith.
- A Catholic employer could fire a single woman who becomes pregnant out of wedlock.
Religion reporters Sarah Pulliam Bailey and Julie Zauzmer wrote about this pending regulation in an article for The Washington Post. The most telling assessment of the regulation’s potential harm came from Melissa Rogers, a lawyer specializing in church-and-state issues. Reporters Bailey and Zauzmer quote her:
“’I’m a big proponent of religious liberty, but we have to balance that value with equal employment opportunity, particularly when we’re talking about federal contracting,’ Rogers said. She said the proposed rule demonstrated a ‘serious failure’ to protect workers. ‘What are the interests of American workers in being able to get and keep a job with a federal contractor without regard to their protected personal characteristics? The proposed rule says almost nothing about that.’”
In its Social Principles and Book of Resolutions, The United Methodist Church upholds the responsibility of governments to protect the basic human rights of all people and the specific rights of vulnerable groups such as workers, women, LGBTQ people and people of color. Only by speaking out against public policies that would harm these groups of people can we fulfill our theological claim that “all economic systems [are] under the judgment of God no less than other facets of the created order” (Social Principles, Paragraph 163).
The Labor Department’s proposed regulation is open for public comment until Sept. 16. Read the Federal Register summary RIN 1250-AA09 about the religious exemption regulation. Then submit your comments in one of these ways:
- Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the instructions for submitting comments.
- Fax: (202) 693-1304 (for comments of six pages or less).
- Mail: Harvey D. Fort, Acting Director, Division of Policy and Program Development, Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, Room C-3325, 200 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20210.
Frances Perkins would thank us.
Cynthia B. Astle serves as Editor of United Methodist Insight, which she founded in 2011.