agreed Friday to allow a job posting seeking married, pro-life
Christian houseparents after the university first refused, saying it
was discriminatory.
The job listing was from Adoption
Priorities, a Christian organization that helps with adoptions and
runs a residential facility that serves expectant women in need. The
organization seeks houseparents, who would work to help the
facility’s residents. The Alliance Defense Fund, The Justice
Foundation and Liberty Institute worked together to persuade UTSA to
permit the posting.
“Christian organizations shouldn’t
be discriminated against for their beliefs and denied equal access to
public university services that are available to everyone else,”
says Gregory S. Baylor, senior counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund.
“UTSA did the right thing by allowing the announcement, but the
larger battle isn’t over. More and more universities are excluding
Christian organizations from their campuses and are thereby
communicating the message that groups are free to use their
facilities and services only if they don’t practice their
religion.”
After UTSA denied the original request
to post the Adoption Priorities employment notice, ADF and its allies
sent a letter to university officials, urging them to allow the
posting or face legal action. According to ADF, they provided UTSA
with information proving that Adoption Priorities is a “religious
employer,” and they are entitled to religious exemptions in federal
and state anti-discrimination laws. UTSA then agreed to the job
posting.
“Religious employers preserve their religious character and
advance their religious missions by hiring employees who share their
beliefs,” Baylor explained. “Adoption Priorities wanted
houseparents who would model Christian living, offer Christian
guidance to women in crisis pregnancies, and, most of all, encourage
them not to get abortions. An unmarried, non-Christian, pro-abortion
couple simply could not do that job.”
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