Christians-only hiring, pride flag ban divides GR charity

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Grand Rapids-based Bethany Christian Services welcomes global refugees to West Michigan, but its staff will no longer reflect the diverse faiths of those it serves.

Target 8 has confirmed that the faith-based social service agency, which receives government funding to provide foster care and refugee services, began enforcing a strict Christians-only hiring mandate several months after the arrival of a new chief executive officer.

Keith Cureton assumed the helm of the 80-year-old charitable institution in July.

According to its website, in 2022 BCS employed nearly 2,000 people worldwide and served 80,400 clients.

Prior BCS leadership had reportedly allowed exceptions to the Christian hiring policy, but Cureton informed staff in late 2023 that there will be no such deviations going forward.

“People were shocked,” said a BCS employee who did not want to be identified. “They couldn’t believe how hard and fast the policy came down. There was no conversation. There was no ‘Let’s come together and talk about how this policy might be implemented.’ It was, ‘This is what’s happening, and you’re going to adhere to it.’”

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Several BCS staff reached out to Target 8 to express outrage over the new administration’s stringent policies.

In recent months, BCS leadership also banned workplace displays of support for LGBTQ+ individuals and other politically divisive movements.

“The way they said it was, ‘You can’t have any flags,’ like a pride flag, a BLM flag”, recalled the employee. “But you also can’t have a MAGA or a 1776 flag.”

Target 8 is not identifying the staff member because BCS instructed employees not to talk to media.

“People are frustrated,” said the employee. “People are hurt.”

According to the worker, tension surfaced in August when the agency’s refugee branch moved from its 36th Street facility to Bethany’s main campus on Eastern Avenue SE.

AN INTERNAL “CULTURE CLASH”

“We ran into a culture clash,” the BCS worker explained. “The refugee side very much embraces diversity, very much embraces, people come from all walks of life, and there’s a widespread passion for LGBTQ+ inclusion … It was kind of right in (the higher-up’s) face all of a sudden, and I think a lot of people didn’t take very kindly to that.”

In a Dec. 5 memo, a BCS administrator told staff there’d been “numerous instances” of Grand Rapids-based workers not following the new “advocacy vs. activism” policy.

“Please ensure that if you have anything that is in violation of this policy at work (i.e., flags, lanyards, buttons, decorations etc.) that you are taking it home with you ASAP. As Bethany employees we are required to adhere to the agency policies regardless if we agree with them, and moving forward failure or refusal to do so will result in disciplinary actions.”

The staff member who spoke anonymously to Target 8 said BCS fired several managers who were not enforcing the pride flag ban.

According to the employee, the terminated managers had also scheduled an optional, inclusive, inter-faith celebration for the same morning and time as BCS’s official holiday gathering.

Agency executives reportedly canceled the alternative event and cited the managers for “insubordination.”

“I think people were in denial at first, like, ‘They can’t get away with this,'” said the BCS employee of the new mandates. “’There’s no way that they can do this.’”

According to the staff member, the policies contradict language in the agency’s federal and state contracts as well as the National Association of Social Workers Code of Ethics.

MI A.G. REVIEWING “MATTER”

The Office of Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel told Target 8 it is “aware of the matter and is reviewing it.”

Target 8 asked the U.S. and Michigan Departments of Health and Human Services If BCS’s actions violate its government contracts, but neither entity responded to that inquiry.

MDHHS, however, did write that it’s “aware of the situation involving Bethany Christian Services and is looking into it.”

Under federal law, faith-based organizations are exempt from anti-discrimination statutes that prohibit employment decisions based on an applicant’s religion.

But debate continues over how broadly that exemption should be interpreted.

The Department of Labor under the Trump administration expanded religious exceptions to anti-discrimination laws, but President Biden’s labor department rescinded the Trump-era regulations.

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the so-called ministerial exception covers not just employees who have “minister” in their title, but any staff who act in ministerial roles.

“We’re seeing more faith-based organizations or employers arguing that anybody they employ is considered a ministerial employee,” said Jay Kaplan of the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan in an interview via Zoom.

But that’s not the case, argued Kaplan.

ACLU “CONCERNED”

“The purpose of a Bethany Christian Services foster care worker, particularly when they have a contract with the state, is not to provide religious foster placement services but foster placement services on behalf of the state,” said Kaplan. “They’re not engaging in ministerial functions, nor under their contract with the state of Michigan should they be … So, I’m concerned about this requirement that you have to adhere to particular religious principles in order to be qualified and to be eligible to be an employee there.”

But Steve McFarland of Christian Legal Society told Target 8 that Bethany is well within its rights under federal law.

“It is a well-established fact that a religious organization can advance its religious mission by hiring people who share the same faith,” said McFarland over Zoom. “What is their primary mission? How do they hold themselves out? This isn’t even a close call when it comes to Bethany.”

The organization’s mission statement makes clear the heart of its calling.

“Bethany is committed as an organization to demonstrating the love and compassion of Jesus Christ by protecting children, empowering youth, and strengthening families through quality social services,” reads BCS’s statement of purpose.

NO UNIVERSAL RIGHT TO RELIGIOUS EMPLOYMENT

“I would note that not everybody has a right to a job at a religious organization. I don’t have a right to be hired by a Muslim Mosque,” said McFarland. “I don’t have a right to display a Palestinian flag if I’m an employee of an Orthodox Jewish synagogue.”

McFarland noted that there’s no free speech right in a private workplace.

The BCS employee who spoke to Target 8 anonymously said it’s not the legality of Bethany’s actions that concerns them.

“The question is not, ‘Can they do it?’, explained the staff member. “I don’t doubt they can. The question is, ‘Should you do that? Should you exclude people?'”

The workers’ biggest concern, according to the employee, is how the policies will impact the children BCS serves.

When Afghanistan fell in 2021, Bethany Christian Services helped pick up the pieces. The agency is one of ten officially recognized “U.S. Resettlement Partners” nationwide.

“Bethany took a ton of kids from Afghanistan through the refugee program,” recalled the employee. “If we didn’t have (staff) at Bethany who were Muslim, I can’t imagine how that would have gone with those kids. We would have been in over our heads even more than we already were,” explained the staff member, referring to workers’ ability to understand what the Afghan children had been through, their culture and how they viewed the world.

“How is it fair to these kids to say, ‘You’re going to a place where everyone, they believe something different than you, and you don’t see yourself in anybody there,'” the worker questioned.

There’s concern, too, said the employee, about staff’s inability to display symbols to ensure LGBTQ+ clients know they are supported.

“These kids are coming from countries where it is not safe at all for them if they are LGBTQ+,” the staff member explained. “They are ridiculed. They are sometimes persecuted, and I can’t have anything in my office that shows that I’m a safe space for them?”

Bethany Christian Services told staff that it will not fire non-Christians who already work there, and if it requires additional support from other faiths in crises like that in Afghanistan, it will hire people on an as-needed, temporary, contractual basis.

“To me that just means you can’t get benefits, just pay, and that’s not treating that employee the same as everybody else,” remarked the worker.

BCS: “OUR EMPLOYEES REMAIN ACCOUNTABLE”

Target 8 sent a detailed list of questions to Bethany Christian Services and requested an on-camera interview with Chief Executive Officer Keith Cureton.

The organization responded with a brief statement that seemed to address the recent terminations.

“Our employees remain accountable for performing in a satisfactory manner the assigned duties of their position so that Bethany can successfully carry out the mission to see a world where all children, youth, and families are safe, loved, and connected,” it wrote.

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