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No Religious Discrimination: 

The First Amendment requires government to remain neutral on matters of religion. But the so-called “faith-based initiative” violates that constitutional requirement and anti-discrimination laws. Created without congressional approval, the program allots billions of taxpayer dollars to social services run by favored religious organizations, allowing them to exercise religious discrimination in hiring and to proselytize people in need. 

Americans should never be discriminated against on the basis of our religious beliefs. Government-funded jobs must be open to all qualified applicants regardless of their opinions about religion. Publicly supported programs should never require anyone to take part in religion. Non-discrimination is the American way. 

If religious organizations use government funds to provide social services, they must not discriminate in hiring on religious grounds or deny services to people based on beliefs about faith. For people to be denied participation in a publicly funded program because of their beliefs about religion is simply un-American. 

Religious organizations may define the content of their community services and hire only those who share their faith tradition in privately funded programs if they wish. But when using our tax dollars, it is not right for faith groups to discriminate in employment or in the provision of services 

Democracy Not Theocracy: Decisions about religion and spirituality are deeply personal. The government’s only role in these matters is to protect individual choice. That’s what separation of church and state and religious liberty are all about. These values protect the rights of believers and non-believers alike to make personal, private choices about faith. Sometimes we take these inherent rights for granted, but we shouldn’t. 

Safeguarding separation of church and state and protecting religious liberty are the foundation stones upon which our country was built. If government is allowed to prefer one religious viewpoint over another or favor people of faith over non-believers, then we are sacrificing our heritage of freedom. 

Some pressure groups want to change federal tax law and allow houses of worship to endorse or oppose political candidates using tax-exempt donations. But this is an unwise proposal that would be deeply divisive in a nation as diverse as America. It would harm our democracy and jeopardize the integrity of our religious organizations. Many houses of worship would be torn apart over partisan politics. We must not politicize our houses of worship. 

Certainly, we all hold different beliefs, but it is our first freedom -- to privately choose our own beliefs -- that is our most important American value. 

Worship, or Not: 

Religious liberty and the separation of church and state allow all of us to make our own private choices about faith and how we practice what we believe. What makes America different from other countries is that our right to make decisions about our beliefs is a private matter protected by the Constitution. 

Some advocacy groups want to change the First Amendment and allow elected officials to make decisions about when and how people pray. Sometimes these misguided efforts are focused on introducing coercive prayers at public schools; sometimes they are focused on imposing sectarian devotions at meetings of governmental bodies. 

Our private choice to worship, or not, must be protected when we go to work and to school and when we participate in our communities. It is never up to politicians or public officials to coerce us into supporting religious expressions in which we do not believe. 

Respect for All Families: 

Some religious leaders and politicians want to use the government to define marriage in a way that favors some religious traditions over others. Religious-political interests are seeking a Federal Marriage Amendment -- or similar state constitutional amendments -- that would limit marriage only to “the union of a man and a woman.” This would discriminate against the growing number of faith groups that perform same-sex marriages. 

Houses of worship have the freedom to consecrate marriages based on their theology. As required by the Constitution, the government must accommodate the diversity of beliefs on this issue. Denying rights based on specific religious traditions is unconstitutional and is not the American way. 

Americans value families in which love and commitment, not politics, define the home. Happy, healthy families deserve respect and should be free to live according to their own beliefs. As responsible adults, it is our freedom to make personal choices about family life and raising our children, without coercive politics invading our homes and privacy. 

America’s various faith traditions take different approaches to marriage. Respecting the rights of those in our diverse communities of faith who deem same-gender marriage to be consistent with their religious creed ensures that the United States will continue to protect the religious liberty of all Americans. 

Reproductive Health: 

All Americans must be free to make choices concerning their own health in keeping with their personal beliefs. 

Opponents of reproductive freedom often seek legislation based on their own religious doctrines. Creating laws that are grounded in religious belief, however, conflicts with the separation of church and state and compromises our religious liberty. We must be allowed to live our lives according to our own beliefs. 

At the center of the reproductive health debate are important questions about individual conscience. Decisions about family planning and emergency contraceptives should be resolved privately, based on our personal beliefs. Individuals may look to their own faith or other ethical considerations as they make these choices, but the government must never mandate that all Americans must follow the tenets of one religious viewpoint. Religious liberty is a basic right guaranteed to all Americans. We must not deny women this basic freedom. 

Offering a variety of choices around reproductive health offers each of us the opportunity to make the best decisions about our options. 

Sound Science: 

Advancing the health and well-being of all Americans requires medical research and policy that is grounded in sound science. Unfortunately, because of their own narrow religious beliefs, some people would prefer to sacrifice sound research that could help all Americans. We deserve to benefit from the best scientific and medical research possible -- it just makes sense. 

Our tax dollars fund most of the medical research in this country, and the government regulates many advances in the medical and health fields. It is critical that our publicly backed scientific institutions and policies are guided by objectivity, facts, and evidence, and not by ideology. Unfortunately, some people would prefer that their religious beliefs guide our government's scientific endeavors -- even if it means sacrificing potentially life-saving technologies that could benefit all Americans. This is the case with stem cell research, which is essentially prohibited using federal dollars due to objections based on certain faiths. Public funding must be invested in advancing science that benefits all of us. 

Sound science has also been limited in other ways. The FDA, for example, has overruled the findings of doctors and scientists and obstructed our ability to obtain emergency contraceptives. This action seems to have been taken based solely on the religious beliefs of political appointees and those who influence them. 

Manipulating scientific advancements because of narrow religious beliefs endangers us all. 

Academic Integrity: 

Public schools must give our children the best possible education, without preferring one religious tradition over others. Nearly 90 percent of our nation’s students receive their K-12 education in public schools funded with our tax dollars. 

Safeguarding separation of church and state and protecting religious liberty ensures that public tax dollars will not be invested in teaching religion as science or funding private religious education. 

Some advocacy groups want to change the science curriculum to reflect their religious beliefs. However, mainstream scientists flatly reject “intelligent design” and other forms of “creationism” as a thinly veiled attempt to bring religion into public schools. The battle here is political, not scientific. 

Other advocacy groups seek to divert public funds to private religious schools through vouchers and other means. Americans must be free to contribute to the religious groups of their choosing. We should never be taxed to support religion. Vouchers and other similar programs violate this freedom by forcing us to support religious education. These programs also damage our children’s education by diverting critically needed money away from public schools. 

Safeguarding the separation of church and state and protecting religious liberty ensures that none of us are coerced into funding religious education through our taxes, just as it guarantees people freedom to privately fund religious education if they wish. 

End of Life Care: 

End of life decisions are among the most personal we will make. These private decisions are best made personally, by individuals and their families. They cannot and should not be made for us by politicians who seek to impose a religious agenda. 

When we make these deeply personal decisions, our choices must be respected. Our private, personal choice should never, ever be made political. 

At one time or another most American families face difficult decisions about end of life issues. As in the Terri Schiavo case, these decisions must be made by individuals, families, and doctors, not by politicians. Legislation that imposes one religious definition of life over other beliefs would be discriminatory and a violation of religious liberty. 

By signing the First Freedom First petition you are safeguarding separation of church and state and protecting religious liberty.

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