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[UPDATE] The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has granted an injunction restoring funding to a Christian youth ministry that was booted from Oregon’s grant program because it requires employees to agree to its statement of faith.
Youth 71Five Ministries provides mentoring to youth. 71Five “provides youth centers in two southern Oregon counties ‘where students can have a safe and supportive place to hang out and develop meaningful relationships’ and enjoy free meals and team activities. It also sponsors a community-based ministry to ‘transform the lives of inner-city youth’ by having them ‘know God and . . . serve their communities.’ In addition, 71Five provides ‘voluntary Bible studies,’ ‘one-to-one visits and mentoring,’ and ‘group discussions’ for youths in detention centers, group homes, and emergency shelters.”
71Five received grant funding through Oregon’s Youth Community Investment Program. In the 2017-2019 grant cycle it was given one grant award, during the 2019-2021 cycle it was given three awards, and in the 2021-2023 cycle it was given three awards.
Oregon had already approved 71Five for grants totaling $400,000 for the 2023-2025 cycle when it received an anonymous complaint that the ministry requires employees to agree to its statement of faith. This violates Oregon’s new eligibility requirement that an awardee “does not discriminate in its employment practices, vendor selection, subcontracting, or service delivery with regard to race, ethnicity, religion, age, political affiliation, gender, disability, sexual orientation, national origin, or citizenship status.”
71Five does not discriminate in who it provides services to, just in its hiring practices. The ministry requires employees to agree to its statement of faith because it relies on one-to-one mentoring and its primary purpose is to provide youth with the opportunity to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
Oregon pulled funding from 71Five anyway, and the ministry quickly filed suit.
The federal district court that heard the case initially sided with Oregon to dismiss the suit.
After an emergency appeal to the Ninth Circuit, the court last week reversed the district court’s ruling and granted an injunction requiring Oregon to restore the funds and reimburse 71Five for its costs as the case proceeds.
Pointing to the Supreme Court’s decisions in several cases (including Carson v. Makin and Fulton v. Philadelphia) regarding the government’s treatment of religious organizations, the court said that Oregon likely violated the “bedrock principle” handed down in Tandon v. Newsom that “the government may not treat comparable secular activity more favorably than religious exercise.”
The court ruled that Oregon had treated secular organizations more favorably by allowing them to violate the eligibility requirements. These groups weren’t just discriminating in who they would hire but in who they would serve.
The Ninth Circuit found,
“As evidenced by their websites, many other participants in the Program discriminate in violation of the Certification Rule. Take a few examples: Ophelia’s Place and Girls Inc. only serve girls or those identifying as girls, even though the Certification Rule states that a group cannot discriminate based on gender in providing services. The Black Parent Initiative only serves African and African American families, despite the Certification Rule’s prohibition on race-based distinctions. And Adelante Mujeres only serves Latina women and families in violation of the Certification Rule’s prohibitions on both gender and race-based discrimination. Yet the state continues to fund these groups while it has revoked 71Five’s grants.”
They continued, “The Free Exercise Clause bars the government from treating religious groups worse than secular ones—but Oregon has apparently done just that in selectively enforcing its Certification Rule against 71Five.”
Jeremiah Galus, senior counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, which represents 71Five, responded to the order by saying,
“71Five provides vital support and care to anyone who needs it, but Oregon officials are punishing it because it’s a Christian ministry that reasonably asks volunteers and staff to agree to Christian beliefs. By stripping 71Five of its funding, Oregon put religious ministries to an impossible choice: hire those who reject your beliefs to receive funding that everyone else can access or go without the funding. This is a critical first step toward restoring the ministry’s constitutionally protected freedoms.”
{Published May 29, 2024} A newly filed lawsuit claims that the state of Oregon has barred a Christian youth ministry from participating in a grant program because the ministry asks employees and volunteers to agree to a statement of faith.
Youth 71Five Ministries states that it “provides many opportunities for loving, caring, Christ-following adults to engage in the lives of lost and hurting kids. We aim to bring hope through relationship; providing a safe place to belong and sharing the message of the Gospel.”
Founded in 1964, its name refers to Psalm 71:5 (International Children’s Bible), which states, “Lord God, you are my hope. I have trusted in you since I was young.”
According to its articles of incorporation, the mission’s primary purpose is “to teach and share about the life of Jesus Christ” so that individuals “might have an opportunity of having a personal relationship.”
Because of this and the ministry’s one-to-one mentoring, it relies on its employees and volunteers to share its faith and requires them to sign a statement of faith.
From 2017 to 2023 Youth 71Five applied for and was granted funding from Oregon’s Youth Community Investment Grants program. In 2021 the organization had the top-rated application for the Youth Violence and Gang Prevention grant. During the 2023-2025 grant cycle Youth 71Five applied for several grants and the state approved the applications. The ministry was set to receive $400,000 in funding. Three months later, however, the state reversed course and informed the ministry that it had been disqualified because it requires staff and volunteers to sign a statement of faith.
Youth 71Five filed a suit against the state, alleging a violation of the First Amendment.
According to the suit, the state even bans an organization from receiving grant funding if it requires a ministerial employee to agree with its statement of faith.
Citing several recent Supreme Court decisions, Alliance Defending Freedom, the legal representatives for Youth 71Five, argues that the state’s discrimination against the ministry because of its religious beliefs is unconstitutional. ADF Senior Counsel Jeremiah Galus explained,
“71Five Ministries provides vital support and care to anyone who needs it, but Oregon state officials are punishing it because it’s a Christian ministry asking volunteers and staff to agree to Christian beliefs.
By stripping 71Five of its funding, Oregon is giving religious ministries an impossible choice: hire those who reject your beliefs to receive funding that everyone else can access or go without the funding. We are urging the court to follow U.S. Supreme Court precedent that upholds the First Amendment freedom of faith-based organizations to hire like-minded individuals. Such organizations cannot be forced to give up their religion to participate in generally available government programs.”
Bud Amundsen, who is the executive director of Youth 71Five Ministries, said that the state’s disqualification of the ministry is devastating.
“When we were awarded the funding, we were happy to continue on with the partnership. And then to have it pulled and to have it pulled for that reason, I mean … [I was] like, how in the world could that happen?” he said. “My hope and goal is to not reduce staff, which will reduce access for young people. I’ve had a variety of emotions related to that. And probably the best thing I could say is, now it feels like we’re very unappreciated, that our hard work has been basically tossed into the trash can simply because they disagree with our faith perspective.”
Amundsen says the grants were over 10 percent of the ministry’s budget, and it has already had to use $187,000 of its reserves to keep programming running.
Galus stated,
“The Supreme Court three times in a period of seven years had to tell state officials, you cannot exclude religious organizations from your programs just because they’re religious. But unfortunately, we see officials like the officials here in the state of Oregon who continue to push back and test those boundaries and try and find other ways to exclude religious organizations. It’s wrong.”
It seems odd that Oregon would suddenly drop its most popular youth ministry after funding it for six years and agreeing to fund it for three more years. What changed? Not Youth 71Five Ministries’ Christian beliefs or hiring policies. Instead, it was the beliefs and policies of Oregon officials.
Increasingly, state agencies in Oregon, as in many other states, have decided that they have the right to favor secular orthodoxies over other beliefs, especially in the areas of marriage and sexuality.
A key example of this can also be found in Oregon, whereby the Department of Human Services denied Jessica Bates, a Christian mother, the right to adopt a foster child because she would not agree to support or encourage a gender transition by a hypothetical child or agree to educate that child in LGBTQ tenets. A district court judge ruled against her, and her case has been appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Fortunately, in fighting for Youth 71Five Ministries, ADF has plenty of precedent to make its legal argument as the Supreme Court has already spoken clearly on this issue. For example, the Court ruled in Carson v. Makin that Maine cannot prohibit parents from using funds from its tuition program at religious schools just because they are religious.
The justices wrote,
“Maine has chosen to offer tuition assistance that parents may direct to the public or private schools of their choice. Maine’s administration of that benefit is subject to the free exercise principles governing any public benefit program—including the prohibition on denying the benefit based on a recipient’s religious exercise.”
That decision relied on prior Supreme Court cases, including Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia v. Comer, wherein the Court ruled that the state may not “expressly discriminate[ ] against otherwise eligible recipients by disqualifying them from a public benefit solely because of their religious character,” and Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, in which the Court ruled that states may not prohibit parents from using otherwise available scholarships at religious schools.
Also important to this case is the Court’s decision in Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrisey-Beru in which the Court found that religious organizations have the right to make hiring decisions based on its religious beliefs.
Another pivotal case is Fulton v. City of Philadelphia. Here the Court ruled that Philadelphia officials could not ban Catholic Social Services from participating in its foster care program because of its beliefs on sexuality and marriage.
These are just some of the Supreme Court decisions that ban the government from discriminating against a religious organization because of its religious beliefs.
If the allegations in this case are true, Oregon has clearly violated the Constitution as interpreted by the Court in all of these cases.
Youth 71Five Ministries performs a public service and Oregon cannot ban them from receiving grant funding for their program simply because they are a religious organization operating according to their convictions.
Whether the judge that initially reviews this case will follow precedent is unknown. Just like state officials, many judges have also adopted the unconstitutional idea that the government has some kind of duty to advance and favor secular beliefs, as can be seen in the initial ruling against Jessica Bates.
Courts and government officials take an oath to uphold the Constitution, not a set of secular beliefs. Let’s hope at some point, they get back to that foundational principle. Everyone, but especially the children of Oregon, will be better off.
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