Last June, I was in Ukraine advising civil society groups that are seeking to ensure that the new Ukrainian education law promotes religious and educational freedom, including the rights of parents. Ukrainian policy-makers are eager to align their country with the West, so a number of times I pointed to the protections that these rights enjoy in the United States as a reason to include similar protections.
I was too complacent! No sooner did I return to Boston than the Obergefell decision came down, with the ominous absence, pointed out by Chief Justice John Roberts in his dissent, of the key word “exercise” from the majority opinion. Shortly before that, President Obama’s Executive Order 13672 added sexual orientation and gender identity to the list of protected classes that federal law shields from employment discrimination. Believers are right to think the ruling makes it difficult to continue to live out the religious convictions that are central to the policies and curricula of their schools.
