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The Discerner

A Yakima Homeless Mission Went Before the Full Ninth Circuit Tuesday. Its Cook and Its CEO Pray Together.

On Tuesday the full Ninth Circuit was scheduled to hear whether Washington may make a Christian homeless mission hire people who do not share its faith. A panel said no in January, and the full court vacated that ruling in June. This is a reflection on the cook, not only the CEO.

A Yakima Homeless Mission Went Before the Full Ninth Circuit Tuesday. Its Cook and Its CEO Pray Together.

Ask a church about its hiring policy and watch the face. Most people hear paperwork. The pastor hears something else, because the question is really about who gets to stand in the room and pray.

In Yakima, Washington, there is a mission that has served people living homeless, poor and addicted since 1936, according to the legal group representing it. That group, Alliance Defending Freedom, quotes the place this way: "From the CEO to the cook, everyone prays together."

On Tuesday the full Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals was scheduled to hear whether Washington State may make that mission hire people who do not share its faith. Two rulings came before. In January a three judge panel unanimously said the state may not. In June the full court vacated that ruling and took the case for itself.

Everyone will tell you what this case is about. I am not sure they are asking about the right person.

The legal question is narrow enough to state. In Union Gospel Mission of Yakima v. Brown, the mission argues that the church autonomy doctrine lets a religious organization hire only co-religionists for jobs that are not ministerial. The January panel (Judges Patrick Bumatay, Daniel Bress and Johnnie Rawlinson) agreed, and it limited its holding to religious organizations, leaving religious businesses and hospitals alone.

On June 18 the full court vacated that decision and granted rehearing. Judge Bumatay dissented from the order, joined by Judges Lawrence VanDyke and Eric Tung, warning of an alarming trend of treating religious liberty as secondary. Vacating a panel ruling this way usually signals that a majority of the full court is uneasy with it. An argument is not a decision, though, and nothing I could reach says how the judges leaned on Tuesday.

ADF said its president and chief counsel, Kristen Waggoner, would argue for the mission. Headlines from Courthouse News and WORLD confirm the argument took place. I could not open either full report, so what the judges asked is not something I can tell you.

Most of the loud version of this story is about the CEO: who runs the place, who signs the statement of faith, who can be let go for what. The mission's own description is about the cook. Someone who scrapes the grill and stocks the shelf at a homeless mission is doing what Paul asked the Colossians to do with any work: "Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men." The mission's claim is that the work cannot be pulled apart from the prayer.

Washington's law, as Courthouse News describes it, bars religious employers from hiring only members of their own faith for nonministerial roles. That is not a silly rule. It exists because people were once turned away from jobs for what they believed. A fair reading has to hold both things at once: the state protecting the person who wants the job, and the church protecting the room where it prays.

I do not know how the full court will rule, and I could not find anyone who does. What I know is that the answer will come from judges who do not work the line at the mission, about a kitchen the mission says is part of its worship.

If this way of reading the news helps you carry it, the Discerner runs free so you can hand it to someone. Pray for the staff in Yakima, and for the judges, who have been handed a question that will shape a lot of kitchens.

Cook to CEO. The court will decide whether the state gets to draw a line between them.

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