The
religious freedom loophole
Religious freedom is one of the basic
rights guaranteed to Americans in the Constitution. But just how far should
that freedom extend?
Across the country, lawmakers have carved
out exemptions from common rules for religious groups, ranging from immigration
to land use. According to an analysis
by The New York Times, more than 200 exemptions for religious groups were
folded into congressional legislation from 1989 to 2006.
These loopholes are meant to give church
groups the freedom to practice their religion without government interference.
But religious exemptions also can lead to problems, as we explore in our latest episode: Scam artists who claim to be religious
have taken advantage of these exemptions, and children have been hurt.
Here are a few troubling examples of these
exemptions, several of which you can hear about in this week’s episode of
Reveal.
Some states
exempt religious day cares from licensing rules
In 16 states, religious day care facilities
are exempt from some rules designed to protect children. At licensed day cares,
all workers must be trained on child safety and must follow specific
child-to-staff ratios. But six states give religious day cares a pass from some
of these rules, allowing workers with no training and no staffing requirements
to care for children.
Our interactive map offers a state-by-state
breakdown (click the image below for the full version):
Many of these church day cares aren’t
inspected unless parents complain – and in a few states, regulators can’t even
investigate allegations regarding inadequate supervision or overzealous
discipline because those decisions are considered church matters. Hundreds of
children have been injured and a few have died in preventable ways at the
thousands of religious, unlicensed day cares around the country.
In our new episode, you’ll hear one example
of how a woman who was jailed for child endangerment started her own church and continued to run dangerous day care
facilities free of oversight.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
We’re continuing to investigate the hazards at religious day cares in the
coming weeks, so sign up for our
newsletter to make sure you don’t miss the stories.
Corporal
punishment is allowed in many religious schools
While physical punishment is banned in most
public schools around the country, many private religious schools and
residential care facilities are free to hit, paddle and spank children in
accordance with their religious beliefs.
On this week’s episode, reporter Abigail
Keel looks at Heartland, a Christian school in Missouri, where
children were punched, hit so hard that they dislocated shoulders, and were
forced to stand in cow manure pits as punishment.
The state raided and evacuated children
from the facility in 2001 over concerns for child safety, but a judge
ultimately ruled that the officials went too far. Today, Heartland can
physically discipline children according to their religious beliefs.
Employment
discrimination laws don’t apply to religious groups
Thanks to a legal doctrine called the “ministerial
exception,” religious groups are exempted from anti-discrimination
rules in hiring and firing.
In a case that made it all the way to the
U.S. Supreme Court, a religious school was allowed to fire a teacher in 2004
after she was diagnosed with narcolepsy – which the woman claimed was a
violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. In a unanimous decision in
2012, the high court said the teacher qualified as a minister, so standard
employment discrimination laws didn’t apply.
Religious
leaders in many states can withhold info on child abuse
Clergy are mandated to
report child abuse in 45 states, but 32 of those states have a
loophole called “clergy-penitent privilege.” These exceptions allow them to
withhold information from authorities if they hear about abuse from members of
their congregation who are looking for spiritual advice.
The Jehovah’s Witnesses are currently fighting
lawsuits over failing to report child sex abuse.
Churches can
often circumvent zoning rules
read more: https://www.revealnews.org/article/6-ways-religious-exemption-laws-are-exploited/
