{"id":62368,"date":"2026-01-08T11:15:01","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T16:15:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=62368"},"modified":"2026-01-08T11:15:01","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T16:15:01","slug":"understanding-the-value-of-a-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=62368","title":{"rendered":"Understanding The Value Of A Team"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Wednesday, The Daily Caller<\/a> posted an article about a recent decision by the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals regarding Washington state.<\/p>\n

The article reports:<\/p>\n

A federal court handed Washington state Christians a major legal victory by allowing churches to exclusively hire members of their own faith for jobs beyond strictly ministerial roles in one of the least religious states in the country.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Washington state\u2019s interpretation of its Washington Law Against Discrimination (WLAD) in a unanimous\u00a0ruling<\/a>. The Yakima Union Gospel Mission can prefer and hire \u201cco-religionists for non-ministerial roles.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

As any corporate executive can tell you, a corporation (or company) functions best when everyone has the same goals. That rule also applies to churches and ministries. Division in the ranks can easily derail any program.<\/p>\n

The article notes:<\/p>\n

The WLAD \u201cprohibits employment discrimination based on several protected grounds, including sexual orientation,\u201d according to the ruling\u2019s summary. However, Union Gospel required workers to abide by Christian beliefs and practices regarding abstinence from sexual relations outside of marriage between a man and woman. The organization sued, alleging the WLAD violated its First Amendment protection under the Religion Clauses, a claim the court agreed with.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cToday\u2019s ruling is especially significant because it answers an under-explored First Amendment question: Does a religious organization\u2019s right to hire fellow believers extend to all staff positions, or only to \u2018ministerial\u2019 ones?\u201d said<\/a> Kristen Waggoner, head of Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), which represented Union Gospel. \u201cIn what we believe to be the first federal appellate court ruling of its kind, the Ninth Circuit explicitly held that the First Amendment protects faith-based hiring for all staff \u2014 not just ministerial employees.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

The article concludes:<\/p>\n

A 2024 Pew Research study found Washington state was tied with New York as the 37th least religious state in the U.S., with only 25% of Washingtonians considering themselves \u201cvery religious,\u201d according<\/a> to MyNorthwest.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Only 51% of Washington residents identified themselves as Christians, with 38% of Washington adults claiming they had no ties to any faith, MyNorthwest reported.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Although Union Gospel aims to hire those who share its religious beliefs, no discrimination or moral requirements are placed on recipients of its aid, according to the AFD press release.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Wednesday, The Daily Caller posted an article about a recent decision by the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals regarding Washington state. The article reports: A federal court handed Washington state Christians a major legal victory by allowing churches … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3510,7015,2100,8388,18978,18979],"class_list":["post-62368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-religious-freedom","tag-the-daily-caller","tag-united-states-court-of-appeals-for-the-ninth-circuit","tag-washington-state","tag-washington-law-against-discrimination-wlad","tag-yakima-union-gospel-mission"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=62368"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62368\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62369,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62368\/revisions\/62369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=62368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=62368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=62368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}