Welcome to Breakpoint, a daily look at an ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth for the Colson Center on John Stone Street.
Well, a decision that was issued on Tuesday, January the 6th, by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Could prove to be one of the most significant religious liberty decisions of all of 2026. In Union Gospel Mission of Yakima versus Brown, the court affirmed that religious organizations have a constitutional right to hire according to their faith, even, and this is important, for ordinary or non-minister positions, and that they can do this without government interference. It's a moment we're celebrating, not only for the plaintiff, Union Gospel Mission, but for every church and every ministry organization that takes its faith seriously.
Now, at the heart of the case was this question, can the government force a Christian organization to hire employees who openly reject its faith and mission? Attorneys for the state of Washington said yes. The Ninth Circuit responded with a resounding no. Union Gospel Mission, a Christian ministry that serves the homeless and the addicted, requires its staff to affirm and live by its biblical beliefs, including Christian teachings about sexuality and marriage. Under the state of Washington's law against discrimination, this longstanding policy was under threat.
After Washington Supreme Court narrowed the law's religious exemption several years ago, Union Gospel Mission feared being punished simply for hiring those who shared its faith. Thankfully, the Ninth Circuit has now affirmed what many of us already knew. Religious organizations are more than just employers of labor. Rather, they're communities of shared belief and religious mission. As the court powerfully said in its decision, and I quote here, personnel is policy.
And who a religious organization hires may go to the very character of its religious mission. End quote.
Now, to be clear, this decision is about much more than just who we hire. It's about the ability of a religious organization to secure and protect its identity. Whenever ministries are forced to dilute their convictions just to comply with secular norms, they cease to be who they are. As the Ninth Circuit noted in its decision, this kind of pressure could drive many religious missions out of the public square entirely. And that would be a great loss, not just for the churches and the ministries, but for the communities and the countless people served by organizations of faith.
And this decision is all the more significant because of the court that handed it down, the Ninth Circuit that covers states like Washington, Oregon, and California, progressive states that have in recent years become increasingly hostile to people and institutions of faith. At the same time, the Ninth Circuit has had quite a reputation as a bastion of judicial activism and progressive ideology.
However, now it hosts a growing number of principal judicial conservatives, thanks to key appointments by the Trump administration, including Judge Patrick Boumite, the author of this Union Gospel decision.
Now, as important as the decision is, it still has limits. For example, it does not grant religious institutions blanket immunity from all employment laws, nor does it necessarily apply to for-profit businesses or hospitals. Still, it affirms the right of ministries like Union Gospel Mission to make personnel decisions that flow directly from their religious convictions, even if those convictions conflict with the dominant secular orthodoxy. The court's decision also reminds us all of a critical truth that faith is personal, but it is not private. Religious liberty doesn't just protect our right to believe in the privacy of our own heads, our own hearts, our own homes.
or even our own houses of worship. The First Amendment protects religious exercise, the active, practical living out of one's deepest held convictions, including the building and running of organizations designed to apply those convictions to the challenges and struggles of life. America in particular would be far worse off without these pre-political, non-profit, faith-based organizations, the kind that run headlong into the problems of our society, seeking to help those that are in need.
So already, here in 2026, we have something to be thankful for. A decision that understands the essential role these organizations play and the essential role that faith and morals play in making these organizations what they are. At the very least, this is not a bad way to start off a new year. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street with Breakpoint. Today's Breakpoint was co-authored by Ian Speer.
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