Opinion: Obama Should Keep Pledge to End Religious Hiring

A Los Angeles Times editorial calls on President Barack Obama to fulfill his campaign promise to bar religious charities that receive federal money from hiring people only of their own faith.

The Bush administration’s Office of Faith-Based Community Initiatives did not ban such practices. Mr. Obama had pledged to reverse that decision, the Times wrote, but his amended executive order creating a revamped Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships lacks “a clear statement that faith-based services that accept federal money may not discriminate in hiring on the basis of religion.” Instead it establishes an advisory council to refer legal questions over recipients’ practices to the attorney general.

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