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Title VII Debate

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Morality is, at its core, a personal and often varying standard from one being to another. The restriction of morality by government to fit a set mold is both counterintuitive and extremely damaging to individual rights regarding the interpretation of morality. Even so, blue laws, laws that place limitations on what is considered moral in higher society and the general community at large have consistently been created. While in rare instances these blue laws are harmless, in most instances the government oversteps their bounds and infringes upon basic human rights. Our government has every right to create laws for morality that protect the rights and safety of the citizenry, but when legislation is used to establish a code for intrapersonal …show more content…
Religious institutions that provide occupational opportunities are able to legally discriminate against job applicants while the vast majority of the public sphere is required to adhere to a very specific code that prohibits discrimination. The moral and legal dilemma that is created through the “ministerial exception [to the Title VII law] and its growth and development in the courts” presents a varying case of whether the individual right to Free Exercise or the morality of hiring a fit candidate provides the government with an apt reason to step in (McClain 518). Title VII is the legal resolution that has resulted from the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that permitted the use of the interstate commerce clause to “prohibit discrimination in the workplace on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, and national origin” (McClain 517). In the secular workplace, the government enforces the resolution and deals with discrimination harshly but in the instance of religious institutions hiring a position, religious institutions are permitted to discriminate. While the ministerial exception was intended as a way for religious institutions to ensure that their employees were of the religion that the institution supported, it left a loophole allowing legally protected discrimination of nearly any kind. The government dictating morality in fair hiring processes is warranted, yet in concordance with some cases that arose from the discovered loophole, I must agree that individual First Amendment rights overshadow the understood immorality of discrimination to protect the near sanctity of the First

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