A new sensitivity over discrimination in the secular world is making it harder for religious institutions to apply a don’t-ask-don’t-tell policy
FOR A brief moment, the presidential aspirant Pete Buttigieg and his husband Chasten may no longer be the most talked-about gay couple in Indiana. At least as much attention is going to two male teachers at Catholic high schools in Indianapolis, who ran into trouble with the local archbishop after it emerged that they were married to one another.
If the archdiocese feels emboldened to act in this way, this must partly reflect the surprising respect shown in recent years by courts across the Western world for “religious autonomy” or the right of religious institutions to enforce their own norms when hiring and firing. In Europe, to the dismay of some secularists, religious autonomy was affirmed in the case of a Spanish teacher who was also a priest. He had defied the church by marrying and campaigning for an end to the rule of celibacy for clerics. He then lost his job, which was not in a church school but subject to church approval. In 2014 the European Court of Human Rights rejected his claim that basic liberties had been violated; it emphasised the entitlement of the church to exercise its authority.
Religiously affiliated bosses across the Western world have had quite an easy time of it, but there is reason to think that may change soon. In the mainstream, secular world there is heightened sensitivity over discrimination of any kind and above all, same-sex marriage is recognised in most democracies. That makes it harder for religious institutions to apply a sort of don’t-ask-don’t-tell policy to the sexual orientation of their employees, as was often the case in the past.
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