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USDA Exempts Religious Schools From LGBT Rule Change Threatening Free Lunch Funds
The National Catholic Register ^ | 8/31/22 | Edie Heipel

Posted on 09/02/2022 7:31:41 PM PDT by marshmallow

Fifty-two percent of U.S. Catholic schools participate in the federal lunch program, according to the National Catholic Educational Association.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has reversed a policy that would have required Catholic schools that participate in a federal free lunch program to comply with the Biden administration’s LGBTQ mandates.

Nevertheless, some Catholic schools, such as those of the Archdiocese of St. Louis, are choosing to drop out of the program.

Earlier this year the Biden administration re-interpreted Title IX's federal ban on sex discrimination to include “sexual orientation or gender identity.” Religious freedom and free speech advocates warn that the change could be used to enforce mandates on hiring, bathrooms, using preferred pronouns, and dress codes.

The broadened definition also applies to the National School Lunch Program, a federally funded meal assistance program administered by the Department of Agriculture that provides subsidized or free lunches to more than 30 million public and private school students from low-income households.

On Aug. 12, the department published a memo saying that although the rule applies to most public and private schools across the country, it includes an exception for schools to “be exempt on religious grounds if there is a conflict between Title IX and a school’s governing religious tenets.”

(Excerpt) Read more at ncregister.com ...


TOPICS: Current Events; Moral Issues; Religion & Politics
KEYWORDS: education; food; homosexualagenda; lunch; tanstaafl; usda

1 posted on 09/02/2022 7:31:41 PM PDT by marshmallow
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To: marshmallow

A perfect example of the strings attached when government funds something. Ostensibly, the program is designed to provide school lunches for needy kids. (I know it covers a lot more than the needy kids now.) Now, unless a school gets with the social engineering agenda of the government — or any other cause it wants to push — well, I guess that’s just too bad for the kids. Of course, I expect most public schools will comply. It would be nice if more schools would follow the lead of the Archdiocese of St. Louis and find alternatives so they can tell the feds where to shove their lunches.


2 posted on 09/02/2022 7:43:07 PM PDT by Southside_Chicago_Republican (The more I learn about people, the more I like my dog. )
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To: marshmallow

Protecting federally funded school lunches from political whims, could be a conservative campaign point.

Not a major one, but it’s one more thing that can sway voters.


3 posted on 09/02/2022 7:43:44 PM PDT by DannyTN
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To: marshmallow
Fifty-two percent of U.S. Catholic schools participate in the federal lunch program, according to the National Catholic Educational Association.

Why?

4 posted on 09/02/2022 7:43:48 PM PDT by Pollard (Worm Free PureBlood)
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To: marshmallow

Where are the GOP adds about the rats withholding food from children unless the school goes along with the LBTG fascists? Well?


5 posted on 09/02/2022 7:57:52 PM PDT by gibsonguy
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To: marshmallow

and you watch when a republican president does away with the requirements they will be accused of ‘;causing irreparable harm to lgbtq students’ blah blah blah


6 posted on 09/02/2022 8:21:18 PM PDT by Bob434 (question)
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To: gibsonguy

nowhere to be found of course- republicans Will NOT fight the enemy!


7 posted on 09/02/2022 8:22:13 PM PDT by Bob434 (question)
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To: marshmallow

If you take ANY money from Government, you are controlled by them.

If a child’s parents can’t figure out a way to pack them a simple lunch, then the child really should be at a public school anyway.


8 posted on 09/02/2022 8:50:16 PM PDT by PGR88
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To: marshmallow
There is a reason we picked the school we did.

No government funds, no government control.

9 posted on 09/02/2022 9:00:40 PM PDT by Harmless Teddy Bear (The nation of france was named after a hedgehog... The hedgehog's name was Kevin... Don't ask)
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To: Southside_Chicago_Republican

The old axiom still applies. Whatever the government funds, the government runs.


10 posted on 09/02/2022 9:48:25 PM PDT by Right Brother
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To: marshmallow

I think SCOTUS ruled against discrimination towards religious schools. So the USDA is “agreeing” to follow the court.


11 posted on 09/02/2022 9:50:09 PM PDT by Recovering_Democrat
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To: marshmallow

I guess we are supposed to be grateful about this?


12 posted on 09/02/2022 10:05:03 PM PDT by Sequoyah101 (Politicians are only marginally good at one thing, being politicians. Otherwise they are fools.)
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To: Pollard

Because parents have to pay taxes for schools they are not sending their kids to, and also pay tuition.

It’s private schooling so they find ways to be competitive with expenses.


13 posted on 09/03/2022 2:25:32 AM PDT by Bayard
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To: PGR88

“If you take ANY money from Government, you are controlled by them.”
____________________

Soc security and Medicare come to mind......


14 posted on 09/03/2022 4:46:17 AM PDT by xenia ( “Freedom is the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.” George Orwell)
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To: marshmallow

I’m from the government and I’m here to help you.


15 posted on 09/03/2022 5:32:41 AM PDT by Ge0ffrey
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To: marshmallow
Earlier this month... a private Christian school in Tampa, Florida, had to file a lawsuit against the administration in order to secure a religious exemption from the rule, which could have forced the school to comply with policies on bathrooms, pronouns, hiring, and dress codes. 

Represented by ADF [Alliance Defending Freedom], the school was granted an exemption by the state’s agricultural department, restoring the funds for its school lunch program. 

Erica Steinmiller-Perdomo, legal counsel at ADF, [said]... that it took a lawsuit for the administration to backtrack on forcing religious schools to comply with its “radical push to redefine what it means to be male or female in federal law.”

“After ADF’s lawsuit, USDA made clear that they will automatically respect religious exemptions under Title IX for religious schools—for now,”...[b]ut public schools, charter schools, and secular private schools... remain under threat. Plus, other federal laws that lack religious exemptions may also apply. As long as the Biden Administration seeks to redefine what it means to be male or female in all federal laws, religious schools risk being punished just for maintaining Christian beliefs,” she added…


16 posted on 09/03/2022 7:58:16 AM PDT by Albion Wilde (Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free... Galatians 5:1 )
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