“The separation of church and state” appears nowhere in the Constitution, yet the phrase has assumed an outsized influence on the public understanding of the First Amendment. First appearing in a letter Thomas Jefferson wrote to the Danbury Baptist Association of Connecticut, it was stripped from its context and injected into the U.S. Supreme Court’s Establishment Clause jurisprudence with damaging results.
But centuries after Jefferson penned the letter, new litigation provides fresh evidence that, viewed in proper context, the original intent of “Jefferson’s wall” was to protect the church and the individual’s conscience from state intrusion. That wall is worth preserving.
Yakima Union Gospel Mission offers shelter, meals, addiction recovery, and medical care to anyone who walks through its doors. Like many mission-driven organizations, it only hires like-minded people. In 2021, the Washington Supreme Court narrowed legal protection for religious charities’ hiring decisions to formal “ministers” only. A unanimous panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld the mission’s freedom to hire only like-minded people. But the Ninth Circuit has decided to rehear the case en banc, and oral argument is set for today.
The legal argument in Washington State is a threat to religious nonprofits nationwide. The same tactics are being used across the country, including against Seattle Pacific University and Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish. If this crucial protection of Americans’ right to pursue noble aims with those of like mind is weakened, it threatens countless religious schools, camps, and even churches.
Regardless of how Americans view the religious beliefs of the staff and leadership of Yakima Union Gospel Mission, they should stand in defense of its right to abide by and employ those who share them. As Thomas Paine advised, “He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.” No one expects PETA to hire a hunter, or the NRA to hire a gun-control activist. Nor should a Christian ministry be forced to hire people who reject its faith.
As Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas wrote in another Washington State gospel mission case, forcing religious groups to hire those who do not agree with their beliefs undermines not just their autonomy but threatens their very existence. The First Amendment protects the proper role of religion in a free society for the betterment of all. Millions of Americans freely exercise their religion by caring for people together — the work itself is an act of faith fueled by a deep sense of shared purpose.
Jews, Muslims, Christians, and people of many other faiths express their religion this way nationwide every day. I share a common faith with my colleagues at Alliance Defending Freedom. Seeing my co-workers as more than just officemates but as fellow travelers on the road to redemption and fellow servants of liberty, justice, and the Author of both, is an essential element of our organization’s identity and success.
Yakima Union Gospel Mission is no different. The unity that comes from a deep, shared, and active faith isn’t incidental to the work — it’s what makes the work succeed: Graduates of the mission’s faith-based recovery program are four times more likely to stay sober than people in traditional sobriety programs.
Every staffer, from the CEO to the cook, lives out that shared faith side by side to serve their neighbors. The unity that comes from shared beliefs fuels the mission’s success. In one year, the mission gave nearly 900 people shelter and served more than 140,000 free meals.
Faith-based charities operate roughly a third of the nation’s emergency shelter beds for families and single adults. They also run over half the country’s food pantries and soup kitchens. People of faith contribute $1.2 trillion to the U.S. economy and society every year.
If the State of Washington is allowed to dilute the mission’s shared belief, it will lose the shared impact. In eleven major cities studied by Baylor University, every dollar spent by the government on faith-based shelter programs saved taxpayers nearly $10. In an era of ballooning budget deficits at all levels of government, this fact alone should be enough to discourage government from meddling in the affairs of those serving the poor and downtrodden out of piety.
Or perhaps the effectiveness of the mission is an uncomfortable reminder of the government’s lack thereof. No matter: Every organization should be free to hire people who believe in its mission, and that is especially true for religious groups. When the government strips that right from them, no organization is safe, and ultimately, “We The People” suffer.