The Refugee Issue Is a Religious Liberty Issue
Texas is demanding that Christian groups stop taking in Syrian refugees. The groups say that's a violation of the Constitution.
Late last week, nonprofit and charitable organizations around Texas received a
troubling letter from the executive commissioner of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission. Dated November 19, the letter instructs all refugee-related agencies in the state of Texas to report any plans of resettling Syrian refugees to the commission, and asks that if they are in the process of resettling Syrian refugees, to “please discontinue those plans immediately.”
The commission’s letter followed
a separate letter sent November 16 by Texas Governor Greg Abbott to President Barack Obama, wherein the governor informed the president that Texas would not be accepting any Syrian refugees.
In Texas, most refugee services are carried out by private organizations that receive funding in the form of contracts from the state. This has been one of the ways, Moorhead said, that Texas has managed to put relatively little of its own tax revenue into social services. But many of these private organizations are faith-based, and their commitment to aiding refugees flows from their overall religious orientation. For that reason, the commission’s directive to suspend all aid to Syrian refugees struck several such faith-based charities as an infringement upon their free exercise of religion.
In a notice posted on its
website and
Facebook page, the Catholic Charities of Dallas stated, “We are called by the Gospel to reach out to all those in need,” adding that, “Catholic Charities of Dallas will continue to serve all refugees.” The citation of the Gospel places the brewing conflict between the state of Texas and its faith groups in line with several other high-profile religious freedom cases that have played out over the last several years, including court battles involving Hobby Lobby and the Little Sisters of the Poor.
As soon as faith groups received the Health and Human Services Commission’s letter last week, Moorhead said, her phone began to ring. “People were calling from the offices of denominational groups saying, ‘Hey, what’s going on? We feel like this is threatening the freedom of this entire denomination, if the refugee organizations we have can’t do their work.’” On Wednesday Moorhead will host a conference call with more than 75 faith groups to prepare a strategy to respond to the commission’s demands.
Religious liberty will be at the forefront of their conversation, she said.
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https://newrepublic.com/article/124534/refugee-issue-religious-liberty-issue