Jewish, Other Religious Activists Meet Attorney General Mukasey
Posted By James BesserPolitical Insider: Jewish, Other Religious Activists Meet Attorney General Mukasey
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Attorney General Michael Mukasey met with a delegation of religious leaders on Tuesday – including several representing various Jewish factions.
Included were representatives of the Orthodox Union and Agudath Israel of America, which generally support Bush administration faith-based polices – and the Anti-Defamation League, which has been a staunch opponent.
The focus was on the administration’s religious freedom agenda, said Nathan Diament, the OU’s Washington director.
“In his opening remarks, he said he is very much committed to the Justice Department continuing the work it started at the beginning of the administration: strongly enforcing RLUIPA (the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000, which protects churches, synagogues and other religious institutions from interference by local authorities) and working on religious discrimination cases.”
The OU, Diament said, asked for “proactive Department of Justice support” for the Workplace Religious Freedom Act (WRFA).
That measure, meant to make it easier for employees to fulfill their religious obligations without jeopardizing their jobs, has languished in Congress for years, and supporters are hoping stronger administration support can get it moving.
But mostly, according to participants, Mukasey just listened.
Deborah Lauter, civil rights director for ADL, expressed concerns about administration charitable choice policies - rules making it easier for religious institutions to get government grants to provide human services, which the ADL argues weaken church-state protections.
Representatives of the Southern Baptists raised the issue of sex trafficking. That issue is a strong priority of the Reform movement, which was not represented at the meeting.
RLUIPA and responsible land use.
02/28/08 @ 02:24 PM | Posted By Robert I. Rhodes, Chairman, Preserve RamapoThere is not question that there is sometimes discrimination against religious houses of assembly. So the idea that the municipality must pay if it refuses to cooperate is an additional club. But this is a vague law, that can also discourage legitimate study of land use issues. It has also been used as an excuse for municipalities to abandon their responsibility to deal adequately with legitimate environmental issues.