IRFA founder Stanley Carlson-Thies commented in a recent podcast that the July 21 LGBT Executive Order is likely to reduce participation by religious organizations in federal contracting. The Executive Order bans job discrimination on the bases of sexual orientation and gender identity by federal contractors, while permitting religious organizations to consider religion when they make employment decisions. Yet there is no clear and obvious dividing line between the now-illegal decision-making based on sexual orientation and the still-legal employment decision-making based on religion. When religious organizations are concerned about the religion of employees, they are seeking employees who are compatible with the ethos of the organization, and that means they care about more than which religion someone professes: they are looking for faithfulness to the values of the religion.

This and other issues were discussed on the podcast issued by the Religious Liberties Practice Group of the Federalist Society. The other speakers were Carl Esbeck of the University of Missouri School of Law and Robin Fretwell Wilson of the University of Illinois College of Law.