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Religious organizations may lose federal funding if they refuse to comply with the Equality Act, Catholic League president Bill Donohue said on The Todd Starnes Radio Show.
“This is the biggest assault I’ve ever seen on Christianity,” he said.
Donohue, a fierce defender of religious liberty, told Starnes that if Democrats pass the Equality Act, religious organizations are at risk of being sued or losing federal funding.
“Catholic hospitals right now refuse to perform abortions,” Donohue said. “Good for them. Under the Equality Act, they would be sued for ‘pregnancy discrimination.’ And if you don’t go along and perform abortions – which Catholic hospitals never will, then you will lose federal funding.”
The Equality Act is a bill in the United States Congress, that, if passed, would amend the Civil Rights Act to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in employment, housing, public accommodations, public education, federal funding, credit, and the jury system.
Donohue wrote in an op-ed on Monday that the Equality Act would prohibit Catholics, evangelicals, Orthodox Jews, Mormons, Muslims and many other religious communities from raising religious liberty objections to any of the aforementioned rights, which would result in religious entities becoming secularized.
Donohue explained how in 1993, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act was passed and how it restores and protects religious liberty. This act allows religious organizations to not perform abortions and in the cases of adoption agencies, allow only straight, married couples to adopt from their agency.
“The Equality Act exempts itself from the Religious Freedom Restoration Act,” said Donohue. “Meaning that all houses of worship and religious institutions have lost their first amendment right to object to anything.”
Host Todd Starnes discussed that he believes that this act is going to be used to attempt to shut down the church.
“As difficult as it may be in the culture, they’re coming after all of us and I think the end game here is to shut down the church in America,” said Starnes.
Donohue agreed with Starnes.
“I don’t think the American people have any understanding of just how sweeping this is. This is not about fairness. This is about promoting discrimination primarily against Christians,” he said.