The great state of Maryland is being sued by the 7th Day Adventist church because it’s highest court ruled that religious organizations could no longer hire and fire people based on their religious beliefs.

Previously, they had enjoyed the ability to dictate the conditions of employment, which included not allowing for any religious or sexual preferences outside of their narrow confines. It also meant they could fire anyone they deemed to be immoral, or living in a way they disapprove of. That’s no longer the case.

In an opinion published in August 2023, the state’s high court narrowed a previous exemption allowing religious organizations to discriminate based on religion in employment. A majority of the Maryland Supreme Court justices found religious organizations could consider religion only when hiring employees who “directly further the core mission” of the group.

That’s the key concept here. The Church wants everyone they employ to be on board with their religious views, but realistically, the state of Maryland decided that if it wasn’t related to positions in the church that are of fundamental importance to their religion, a janitor, or landscaper doesn’t exactly fit the description of “core mission”. That means that if they discover that a bricklayer working on their property is gay, they can’t fire him anymore. It must be terrifying to them.

Since the plaintiffs don’t have much of a case, they’ve decided that the ability to discriminate against people who do not believe in the same things you do is a violation of the right to free speech and religious association:

“Application of (Maryland Fair Employment Practices Act) to Plaintiffs’ hiring practices would result in excessive government entanglement with the Church’s internal religious decision-making and would violate the First Amendment,” lawyers for the church wrote.

I guess they forgot that this was still about the right to hire and fire people. I also don’t recall the threat being posed here, unless they belief that a plurality of belief, which is what is the essence of the First Amendment, is a threat to their own. That would seem to imply that they consider these rights only to apply to themselves.

It’s hardly surprising that a church would consider itself above the laws that govern others. Unfortunately for them, this baseless lawsuit doesn’t have a chance in hell to going anywhere, since the Supreme Court ruling was pretty clear about how it defined the rights of churches to still practice there disgraceful practices so long as it was in pursuit of their “core mission”. Knowing how religions operate, I’m sure they will stretch that definition so thin as to be functionally useless.