Homeless Shelter Sues Government to Protect Right to Hire Bible-Believers

A Christian organization serving the homeless is suing Washington state officials to protect “its constitutional right to hire employees who share the same religious beliefs,” according to Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a conservative legal firm. ADF is defending Yakima Union Gospel Mission, a Christ-centered homeless shelter that has provided service to the community for 85 years, with Yakima offering medical supplies, meals, shelter, and recovery programs to those in need. According to the legal firm, the Washington Supreme Court recently re-examined state law and now prevents religious groups from hiring only those people who share their beliefs. Now, Yakima Union Gospel Mission is taking officials to court in an effort to ensure it can hire Christian staff members to live out its biblical mission. Mike Johnson, CEO of Yakima Union Gospel Mission and Ryan Tucker, ADF senior counsel, joined CBN’s Faithwire to discuss the important case and why it matters. “Religious organizations are free to hire people who share their beliefs. That’s what makes us a religious organization,” Johnson said. “The functional benefits of that for us as a rescue mission are really important because … we are a community of Christ. We are people relating to each other around the person of Jesus.” He said the entire mission’s “unity” is disrupted with the mandate non-believers be hired. “We love everybody that comes through our doors, but we need our employees to be able to build Christian community with each other, because that’s the essence of what drives change,” Johnson added. He said the organization has had to pull job listings and has already received a “threatening voicemail,” among other barriers. “We had to pull all of our positions down off of Indeed.com, because we were getting so many of these hostile applications,” he said. “There are a couple of open positions that we’ve just decided aren’t worth … posting for right now, because it’s harmful to us to keep the position unfilled, but it might be more harmful for us to catch one of these complaints and have the attorney general after us.” Johnson is hoping the legal challenge helps protect his organization and amend the state’s handling of the matter.

Download the free CBN News App: http://cbnnews.com/app

SUBSCRIBE to the CBN News Channel for more:
http://youtube.com/c/CBNnewsonline/?sub_confirmation=1

SUBSCRIBE to the QuickStart Newsletter by visiting quickstart.news

SUBSCRIBE to the Quickstart Podcast. New episodes every morning at 7am: cbn.com/cbnnews/quickstart

What’s coming up next? Have a look at our program guide: https://www.youtube.com/redirect?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww1.cbn.com%2Fcbnnews%2Fnewschann&redir_token=3Xja-7LE5ZQebEu1fn-B5ib34tN8MTU3OTg4MjMzMkAxNTc5Nzk1OTMy&v=P0mHVeNNfDw&event=video_description

CBN features 24-hour TV news from a Christian perspective. The CBN News Channel provides independent news programming to an underserved audience to enlighten, entertain and inspire Christians around the world. Comments below do not necessarily reflect the views of CBN.

Share this live feed with your friends and family:
https://www.youtube.com/c/CBNnewsonline

Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cbnnews/
Like us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/CBNNews
Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cbnnews/

Contact News Editors: https://www.youtube.com/redirect?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww1.cbn.com%2Fcontact%2Fcontact-&redir_token=3Xja-7LE5ZQebEu1fn-B5ib34tN8MTU3OTg4MjMzMkAxNTc5Nzk1OTMy&v=P0mHVeNNfDw&event=video_description

Questions about other CBN programs: https://www.youtube.com/redirect?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww1.cbn.com%2Fcontact%2Fcontact-&redir_token=3Xja-7LE5ZQebEu1fn-B5ib34tN8MTU3OTg4MjMzMkAxNTc5Nzk1OTMy&v=P0mHVeNNfDw&event=video_description

Questions about supporting CBN?
http://www1.cbn.com/cbn-partners (and) https://www.youtube.com/redirect?q=https%3A%2F%2Fsupport.google.com%2Fyoutube%2F%3Fp&redir_token=3Xja-7LE5ZQebEu1fn-B5ib34tN8MTU3OTg4MjMzMkAxNTc5Nzk1OTMy&v=P0mHVeNNfDw&event=video_description

Questions about Helping the Home Front? Call: 757-226-2333
https://www.youtube.com/redirect?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww1.cbn.com%2F700club%2Fhelping-&redir_token=3Xja-7LE5ZQebEu1fn-B5ib34tN8MTU3OTg4MjMzMkAxNTc5Nzk1OTMy&v=P0mHVeNNfDw&event=video_description

#breakingnews #politicalnews #christiannews #christian #christianity #church #breakingnews #cbnnews