Nine U.S. federal agencies have published new rules that will protect the religious liberty of faith-based organisations and their beneficiaries under social service programmes.
The new rules cover the U.S. Departments of Education, Homeland Security, Agriculture, Housing and Urban Development, Justice, Labor, Veterans Affairs, and Health and Human Services, and the Agency for International Development.
Under the new regulations, agencies are required to ensure that the grant of federal financial assistance will be based solely on merit, without regard to an organisation's religious affiliation or lack of it, and free from political interference, the Christian Post reported.
These would enable faith-based organisations to be eligible to participate in federally funded social service programmes on the same level as any other organisations.
Activities will also be clarified on what can and cannot be supported by direct federal assistance by replacing the term "inherently religious activities" with "explicitly religious activities."
Organisations that get federal funds will be prohibited from discriminating against beneficiaries including denying services or benefits based on religion, religious belief, refusal to hold a religious belief, or a refusal to attend or participate in a religious practice.
Faith-based organisations that receive direct federal financial assistance will also be required to give a written notice of certain protections to beneficiaries of the programme.
The U.S. Agriculture Department said a beneficiary who participates in The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), or any other USDA service offered by a faith-based organisation, must be notified in writing that he or she cannot be discriminated against based on religion, cannot be required to attend or participate in any privately funded religious activities that are offered separate from the federally funded programme, and may request an alternative provider, if the beneficiary objects to the religious character of the organisation.
Any organisation that gets federal funds is barred from requiring a beneficiary to attend or participate in any explicit religious activity offered by such organisation.
President Barack Obama appointed an Advisory Council for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships in 2009, which recommended steps to strengthen social service partnerships between the U.S. government and non-government organisations in November 2010.
