| For Immediate Release November 5, 2009 |
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NRB FIRMLY STATES OPPOSITION TO
ENDA IN SENATE TESTIMONY
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| Download hi-resolution photo of Craig Parshall |
Washington, DC – On November 5, 2009, NRB Senior Vice President and General Counsel Craig Parshall testified before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, on behalf of NRB and in opposition to the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (S. 1584).
Parshall noted that if the proposed legislation becomes law, it “would impose a substantial, unconstitutional burden on religious organizations and would interfere with their ability to effectively pursue their missions, both those which are non-profit groups, as well as faith-based institutions and enterprises which operate commercially.”
Both “S. 1584 and its companion ENDA bill in the House of Representatives, H.R. 3017, are the result of a public debate over sexual orientation and gender identity legal protections” of relatively recent vintage, said Parshall, “comparing by contrast, the long-standing recognition in our nation that religious liberty is a foundational right and that government should have few occasions to invade it.”
Parshall concluded that both bills “represent an assault on these historical notions of religious freedom.”
Click here to link to Parshall's prepared oral testimony.
About ENDA
The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) has been offered during every Congressional session for more than a decade. This legislation claims to be merely a civil rights bill that “prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity” (Congressional Research Service), but it is actually much more. As currently written, ENDA would give special employment rights to homosexuals, lesbians, bisexuals, transgendered individuals and individuals claiming any type of “gender identity” (sexual preference). Consequently, it would affect the hiring and firing decisions of any employer with 15 or more employees.
NRB strongly opposes ENDA. If it is ever signed into law, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act will have a particularly burdensome impact on Christian broadcasters, religious organizations and Christian schools.
In current law, the FCC provides a minimal but relatively effective EEO exemption for religious broadcasters who wish to make hiring and firing decisions based on faith-based criteria. By contrast, ENDA would collide with that hard-won protection. The pro-homosexual lobby claims that there is “religious exemption” language present in ENDA, but as NRB’s General Counsel Craig Parshall notes, that language is “insufficient, overly complex and vague.”
About NRB
The National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) is a non-partisan, international association of Christian communicators whose member organizations represent millions of listeners, viewers, and readers. Our mission is to keep the doors of electronic media open for the spread of the Gospel. In addition to promoting standards of excellence, integrity, and accountability, NRB provides networking, educational, ministry, and fellowship opportunities for its members. Learn more at www.nrb.org.
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