At the White House Easter event on Monday, one couple was hoping to roll more into their baskets than eggs. Days before, homosexuals Jarrod Scarbrough and Les Sewell promised to use the annual tradition to pressure President Obama on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). Like so many items on the President’s wish list, this one doesn’t have the congressional support it needs to pass. So, homosexuals are hoping for the next best thing: an Executive Order that reaches over the legislature and implements the policy anyway. It’s a favorite trick of this administration, abusing its power to force an agenda that fails democratically. The President owned up to the strategy earlier this year, warning that he “would not wait for Congress to act.”
On this issue, though, he thought better of it. Yesterday, after a meeting with homosexual activists, Obama officials broke the news that this favor would have to wait until after the election when the President has “more flexibility,” shall we say. According to the Wall Street Journal, “Several people attending the meeting said they left with the impression that the administration is wary of imposing additional requirements on businesses ahead of the election…”
That isn’t much comfort for faith-based groups or religious employers, who understand all too well what these restrictions would mean to their ministries or businesses. Unfortunately for them, the contraception mandate was a great teacher of what we all stand to lose if we don’t comply with the government’s idea of “tolerance.” The freedom of conscience, of speech, and of religion would disappear in a cloud of ENDA’s politically correct regulations. It would pave the way for reverse discrimination against any American who disapproves of homosexuality.
Ask people like Scott Hoffman of the Ocean Grove Meeting Association. His organization had to stop hosting weddings at its New Jersey pavilion because it refused to marry same-sex “couples.” Or Julea Ward, a counselor in training, who wanted to refer a homosexual patient because his lifestyle conflicted with her biblical worldview. She was expelled from her graduate program because of it. These are real life examples. And there are millions more to come if this President gets his way. For an in-depth look at how ENDA destroys our First Freedoms, check out or order a copy of FRC’s documentary, ENDA: The End of Religious Liberty in America.