Ever since President Obama signed his Faith Based Initiative Executive Order a couple weeks ago, there’s been some frustration on the left because the President’s Executive order did not rescind Bush Administration Policy on how faith groups are allowed to hire. Some on the left believe it amounts to discrimination.

The Anti-Defamation League is not happy either. Today they sent the following letter to President Obama. Read part of it below:

As you know, the Bush Administration’s implementation of its faith-based initiative raised serious questions of both law and policy.  We are concerned that your Executive Order fails to address critical constitutional safeguards for protecting religious organizations, beneficiaries, and the government.

Especially in the context of your vision of an expanded, better-funded faith-based initiative, we are deeply troubled by the prospect that taxpayer money will likely fund religious discrimination in employment decisions involving the people who deliver faith-based social services. 

We believe that the proposed case-by-case review by the Justice Department is insufficient because this approach misses the opportunity for prophylactic guidance and Presidential leadership against employment discrimination by faith-based grant recipients.  During the campaign, you stated that the Bush Administration faith-based initiative lacked essential safeguards against proselytizing and discrimination.  Yet, the failure to establish new standards by which the Justice Department will judge whether an organization is entitled to an exemption to the religious nondiscrimination laws means that the old, inadequate safeguards remain the legal standards.  This is especially troubling in light of last June’s deeply-flawed Office of Legal Counsel opinion holding that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act can be construed to exempt a religious organization from certain religious nondiscrimination provisions.

There’s no doubt that this will continue to be a lingering cloud over the Obama administration’s faith-based efforts. People on both sides want clarification and right now it feels like it’s a wait and see scenario. Nobody is quite sure what is going to happen in the future. If you’re a liberal, I don’t think there’s any question that there was an expectation going in that Obama would somehow, someway rescind the faith hiring provision. After all, he spoke out against the so called ‘discrimination” practice during the campaign. The fact that he didn’t seems to be another example of President Obama trying to play to the middle in the hopes of being a President for all people.