Urgent Action Alert: Status of Bills Attacking Religious Freedom

So many of you responded to last week’s Emergency Alert (“This Bill Will Destroy Churches and Religious Schools”) about the perils of HB 1663, SB 868, and HB 1049, and we believe the outcry from faith-based Virginians coupled with the amplification from our emergency Press Conference on Religious Freedom on Tuesday is beginning to break through in getting legislators’ attention. The situation could not be more serious, yet still, as of right now, we have ZERO ASSURANCES from Democrats that they will at least add needed protections for religious entities such as churches, schools, and nonprofit ministries. This is shocking, really, because even states like California, Massachusetts, and New York have far greater protections for religious organizations!

Please contact your legislators now – again if necessary – to urge them to intervene to prevent this all-out assault on people of faith who maintain Biblical convictions!

Provided below is an overview of what these bills will do, where they’re currently at in the legislative process, and the ways in which they must be amended in order to truly protect religious organizations.

Here’s What These Bills Will Do:

HB 1663 (D-Sickles) and (identical) SB 868 (D-Ebbin) – Targets people of faith, including churches, religious schools, and nonprofit ministries by making them “places of public accommodation” and dictating their operational and employment decisions that impact fundamental tenets of their faith – particularly with regards to the concepts of “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” (SOGI). It incentivizes private lawsuits and state-initiated investigations and civil actions against faith-based entities who don’t comply with the latest LGBTQ dogma by creating new causes of action, massive fines, payment of the other side’s attorneys’ fees, and absolutely unlimited compensatory AND punitive damages awards, which could quickly bankrupt most religious nonprofits.      

HB 1049 (D-Levine) – Adds special SOGI protections into roughly 80 sections of the Virginia Code, including private employment practices, public accommodations, housing, and state contracting requirements – without adding any exemptions or protections for religious liberty, including for churches, schools, and nonprofit ministries. Faith-based ministries who partner with state and local governments to provide vital services like refugee resettlement would be forced to cease operating if they chose not to compromise their core religious tenets on marriage and sexuality.     

Here’s The Current Status of These Bills:

• HB 1663 was taken by this week by the Senate General Laws Committee that met yesterday, which is a positive sign that they want to continue working on it. It is now scheduled to be heard by the Committee next Wednesday afternoon, where hopefully they will agree to amend it to protect churches, schools, and nonprofits.
   

• SB 868 has now reached the House floor and is on its third and final “Read” when the full House votes on it. It has been passed by for the day for three days straight, another good sign that they are trying to work on it. It will have to be amended on the House floor if Democrats agree to add protections for religious entities.   
   

• HB 1049 had a robust and dramatic hearing yesterday in the Senate General Laws Committee. Watch the highly informative hearing HERE (Starts at 2:46:36). After a very unusual series of discussions and motions, the Committee voted to have the bill go by until next Wednesday’s meeting, with the hope of working out some kind of compromise that at least allows faith-based entities to continue contracting with the state to provide vital services.  

Numerous faith-based charities and school representatives came to explain how HB 1049 would directly harm their ability to provide their services.

Here’s What’s Still Needed In These Bills to Protect Religious Organizations:

1. Private Employment Practices: While HB 1663 and SB 868 do stipulate that a religious corporation, association, educational institution, or society is allowed to hire employees of the same religion, it does NOT permit a religious organization to require all applicants and employees to conform to the religious tenets of the organization. In other words, a church or school could consider a person’s religious views when hiring them, but it would no longer be allowed to consider religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, or actions taken in accordance therewith outside of work, in disciplining or terminating that employee. Unless our proposed language is added to these bills, religious organizations could no longer legally keep their employees accountable to the organization’s core faith tenets.  
    

2. Place of Public Accommodation: All three bills would make most churches a “place of public accommodation,” treating them the same as a for-profit business, thereby impacting their privacy policies in sex-segregated facilities, their ability to perform and host weddings/ceremonies, to carry out church discipline against their members, as well as a church’s ability to limit its own membership and leadership roles on the basis of sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, or even religion! This would also apply to most private religious schools, and just about every religious nonprofit ministry. Unless our proposed language is added to clarify that private religious entities are not places of public accommodation, this provides the Attorney General the perfect tool to absolutely crush any religious organization with a physical location if they choose not to conform to the LGBTQ agenda, and would also invite targeted lawsuits by hostile members of the public.   
    

3. Housing Discrimination: Without additional amendments, Christian colleges like Liberty University, Regent University, and Christendom College could be forced to allow same-sex couples into their married housing accommodations, in direct conflict with their core faith tenets on marriage. Faith-based homeless or women’s shelters could be prevented from enforcing any sex-segregated policies.
    

4. Partnering With the State: Unless HB 1049 is amended to permit religious organizations that contract with the state to continue operating according to their faith, those who continued to maintain their Biblical identity regarding marriage and sexuality will no longer be allowed to take part in providing those vital public services.

Take Action NOW. Urge your legislators to Protect Religious Freedom!