CV NEWS FEED // The Biden administration’s State Department this month released its “2023 Equity Action Plan,” a move critics say amounts to “exporting wokeness” and will threaten faith-based charities working in the Third World.
“Inequity is a national security challenge with global consequences,” stated Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a message at the beginning of the plan. “President Biden recognized this challenge and issued two executive orders directing all federal agencies … to embed equity into all aspects of federal decision-making.”
“To guarantee a consistent and systemic approach for all, we must continue to advance equity for members of marginalized racial, ethnic, and Indigenous communities,” Blinken continued:
women and girls; persons with disabilities; refugees and internally displaced persons; members of religious minority groups; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex (LGBTQI+) persons; rural residents; and those adversely impacted by environmental inequities, persistent poverty, or inequality.
The plan’s executive summary states: “Around the world, members of marginalized and underserved communities are on the frontlines of global challenges – from economic and social inequality to the climate crisis to threats to democracy, peace, and stability.”
Later in the summary, the State Department outlined five “strategies to advance equity globally.”
The Department vowed to “Pursue Diplomatic Efforts to Combat Hate and Protect Inclusive Democracy,” “Advance Racial Equity and Justice Globally,” “Protect LGBTQI+ Persons Globally,” “Promote Respect for International Disability Rights,” and “Advance Gender Equity and Equality Globally.”
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In a piece for the National Review, Andrea Picciotti-Bayer slammed the initiative as an effort to “impose American-style far-left ideology on other nations.”
She wrote that Biden’s State Department “is less interested in freedom and fairness than in pushing its fanatical post-liberal progressive agenda.”
Picciotti-Bayer also indicated that the “Equity Plan” is “particularly bad news for faith-inspired organizations that offer humanitarian assistance beyond our borders.”
“Faith-inspired organizations, in particular, are likely to find their religious convictions excluding them from participating in government-funded relief work,” she explained:
It’s true that the proposed rules related to contractors allow the State Department to grant a waiver “to allow a religious corporation, association, educational institution, or society to employ individuals of a particular religion to carry out the activities under the award in a manner consistent with its religious beliefs.” But that doesn’t mean that religious organizations will be allowed to make hiring and firing decisions based on their beliefs.
Writing for the Federalist Society, Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC) Fellow Rachel N. Morrison also outlined how vaguely defined terms in the plan may be construed to promote abortion abroad.
“[The State Department] does not define discrimination based on ‘pregnancy’ but, consistent with the Biden administration’s pro-abortion policies, will likely interpret the term to include abortion and contraception,” she noted.
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In a letter sent to Blinken earlier this month, nine Republican senators pressed the secretary on the Department’s proposed “nondiscrimination” rule.
“The nondiscrimination rule would violate the rights and beliefs of faith-based partner organizations and their beneficiaries, undermine relationships with key stakeholders, and threaten U.S. security interests,” the lawmakers wrote.
They indicated that they were concerned “with the proposed waiver requirement for religious organizations to employ individuals of their own faith or to carry out foreign assistance activities in a manner consistent with their sincerely held beliefs.”
“This would place a substantial burden upon faith-based groups,” the senators explained,
and allow State Department a veto on questions of whether Jewish organizations can bar pro-Hamas individuals from employment, or whether Muslim organizations are allowed to only distribute halal food assistance.
“Conditioning foreign assistance programs on adherence to leftist priorities, like abortion and
gender identity, may deprive access to U.S. foreign assistance to those most in need of these programs,” they emphasized.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-FL, was the letter’s lead signatory.
