I just got a note from the HSLDA.ORG urging homeschoolers to barrage legislators with calls to stop the Federal Employment Non Discrimination Act. "ENDA would prohibit employment discrimination on the basis of "actual or perceived sexual orientation." They do not want the non discrimination act passed because it means that businesses would have to hire people who were gay or lesbian or were perceived as gay or lesbian. Of course religious organizations are exempt from this law, but HSLDA says that a business would have to prove it was a religious organization. While a church or Christian school might be able to freely discriminate, a business based on religious foundations like Chik Filet, Hobby Lobby, or Wells Real-Estate Funds would have to hire people of all sexual orientations.
Now I am a Christian, and a homeschooler, yet I am offended by this email. First of all, I think it is presumptios of HSLDA or use this "legal service" to homeschoolers as an avenue to control legislation. Yes many homeschoolers are Conservative Christians, but homeschool has become very mainstream in the last decade which includes many gay and lesbian families homeschooling as well. Furthermore, as an African American, I have problems with emails that say "stop and anti discrimination law". They need to open their eyes and take a close look at demographics before sending out such an email.
As a Christian, I have to ask, WHO AM I, to decide that an infeminate man (gay or not) cannot have a job in an organization with Christian roots. WHO AM I to exclude a woman who may be mistaken for a man (lesbian or not) from employment.
Maybe I'm wrong, Maybe I'm crazy, but I won't be calling my legislature to help HSLDA discriminate against people who just want to work. Read it for yourself.
I am kinda glad I let my membership lapse.
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4 comments:
I agree that HSLDA has some odd tactics.
I do like many of the things they provide, but those emails about things that have nothing to do with homeschool are a little weird, not to mention discriminatory.
Sometimes I agree with them and sometimes I don't.
I think the only ones they should send out are those that actually have something to do with education.
Unfortunately, many legitimate religious organizations are being denied exemptions to laws that violate their faiths. I'm not talking about businesses such as Chick-Fil-A but non-profits like Catholic Charities and Catholic hospitals. They are being forced to pay for their employees' contraceptives and fertility treatments, dispense the abortifacient "morning after" pill, adopt to homosexual couples, and so on in violation of Church teaching. Even though there are tons of secular institutions which provide the services in question so it would not be any big deal to exempt these religious-affiliated ones. If someone does not agree with the policy, simply go elsewhere!
I personally see it as part of the hostility towards Christianity in our society. Why should the government force a religious-affiliated organization to violate the tenets of that faith?
This is precisely the reason why I did not complete my HSLDA application. I would like to support them, I think they have done a great job promoting and protecting the rights of homeschoolers in the legal arena, and I would of course like to have access to their services should I ever need them. But they have spread themselves out into other areas beyond the scope of their original mission. I am not enthusiastic about some of their involvements, and I do not fit in their political box. It is annoying that in order to become a member and support other homeschoolers with legal issues, I must also support a host of agendas with which I may or may not agree. I understand their concerns as a conservative and evangelical Christians, but I wonder if they are aware that by *not* limiting their objectives as an organization, they are alienating many homeschoolers as well as contributing to the widening rift between "secular" and "religious" homeschoolers -- in the long run hurting the very cause they wish to defend.
I took it as more the HSLDA was against more government intrusion/regulation than that they were against GLTBQ.
Of course, I didn't actually read the email I got, since I've gotten about 400 from 12 different organizations all calling for the same thing (at least it's not an internet petition).
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