http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/02/nyregion/02army.html?ex=1076389200&en=b04232b79c45cfd5&ei=5062
....
The New York division's new leaders have ordered that job descriptions
now state the mission clearly. They have reminded employees who deal
with children that they must fill out a form promising to follow the
Army's religious mission in working with them. The form also asks those
employees to describe their church affiliations.
....
The effort has stirred a mini-rebellion among some longtime employees
who resent what they see as an intrusion on their privacy and the
potential for religious discrimination. Such demands for religious
loyalty, they say, breach the wall between church and state because the
division accepts $70 million in state and city funds for its programs.
....
One high-ranking administrator, in a complaint to the Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission, said a Salvation Army official said during a
meeting that any staff member who refused to sign revised job
descriptions proclaiming the church's mission would be fired. And a
former human resources executive said a Salvation Army official asked
about religious affiliations of people who worked for her and whether
several of them were gay.
....
The clash between the group's religious and social service missions goes
to the heart of President Bush's effort to make it easier for churches
to obtain federal money for so-called faith-based social programs, a
debate in which the Salvation Army has been central.
The group has lobbied the White House to allow exemptions from gay
discrimination laws, and in New York, has argued that its hiring
policies fall well within the terms of contracts with the city, the
city's human rights law and a 1980 executive order.
Opponents sharply disagree. "It's governmental monies to spread the
mission of Christ," said Martin Garbus, a First Amendment lawyer who is
representing at least a dozen Army employees who are upset by the
religious policy and fear retaliation. "The government shouldn't support
Pat Robertson, it shouldn't support the Catholic Church, it shouldn't
support Jewish synagogues."
The New York Civil Liberties Union asked the city and state comptrollers
two weeks ago to audit the New York branch. Lawyers for the group say
the New York division may be violating city and state contracts
prohibiting religious discrimination.
....
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Merlyn LeRoy
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