Oct. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Alan Yorker's last name is an invention of his father, who changed it from Monjesky. He did so after the railroad where his own father worked fired blacks and Jews first in a job cutback.

The name change was to spare his descendants anti-Semitism, according to Yorker's account. Indeed, it let Yorker get through the door of the United Methodist Children's Home after he applied for a job as a psychotherapist. But that is as far as he got.

When the interviewer read on Yorker's application that he is Jewish, Yorker's status went from top applicant to ineligible, the home acknowledges.

Situated in the suburbs of Atlanta, the home offers foster care to some 70 children sent there by the state, which helps cover the costs. The home takes children of all faiths or none, but hires only Christians, and then only those who are either married or celibate. That's according to court papers the home's lawyers filed after Yorker and a fired counselor, a lesbian, sued.

Religious organizations can, in fact, discriminate according to religion under federal law. But until now they haven't been able to take money from the federal government if they do.

President George W. Bush is changing that. Thanks to new regulations he is pushing, groups can get Uncle Sam to pay for jobs barred to Jews, Catholics, Muslims or anyone of a disfavored faith. A constitutional court fight may be inevitable.

The Spin

The peculiar thing is that Bush pitches the new rules as if he is curbing religious discrimination instead of rewarding it.

Regulations that went into effect last month eliminate ``barriers that discriminated against faith-based groups,'' asserts the White House Web site. In fact, the barrier the new regulations remove is the one that kept tax dollars away from groups that discriminate against people of other faiths.

``The federal government should not ask, `Does your organization believe in God?''' when handing out grants, Bush said last year.

That is not, of course, what the government has been doing. It's been handing out grants for a very long time to groups that believe in God. But until now it's been denying funds to groups that ask job applicants, ``Do you believe in God?''

Under Bush's rules, some adopted and some merely proposed, groups that do ask such questions are becoming eligible for federal funding.

Requiring Salvation

To get a job at the Orange County Rescue Mission near Los Angeles, you must sign a statement declaring, ``I have received the Lord Jesus Christ as my personal Savior'' and that you believe those who haven't will suffer ``eternal separation from God,'' according to the form provided by the mission.

The mission's aim is to ``reconstruct'' each homeless man and woman it shelters into a ``productive Christian member of society.'' To treat addicts, the mission uses ``the actual words of Jesus,'' according to the mission's Web site.

Bush and other administration officials have repeatedly said they find it just plain wrong that under the old rules the Orange County Rescue Mission was denied federal Housing and Urban Development funds because it refused to secularize.

``Government action like this is pure discrimination,'' Bush said in a speech this week in Dallas, again singling out the Orange County mission.

Ah, but things are changing.

Mission Accomplished

``After the regulations are finalized, groups like Orange County Rescue Mission will be able to apply for HUD funds while maintaining their religious identity,'' says a statement posted on the White House Web site.

Jim Towey, who runs the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, calls it an ``odious double standard'' that religious groups couldn't hire like-minded staff and still get government grants while groups like Planned Parenthood can.

``We feel there should be a uniform standard,'' he said in a telephone interview this week.

The way Towey sees it, by hiring people who agree with its mission, Planned Parenthood excludes those whose faiths oppose abortion, like Roman Catholics and Orthodox Jews.

The difference, of course, is that Planned Parenthood doesn't say, ``No Jews or Catholics allowed.'' Towey calls that a ``difference without a distinction.''

In fact, it's a critical difference which acknowledges that some people harbor views on family planning that aren't identical to those of their religion.

Helping Humanity

Plenty of faith-based organizations help the needy without requiring applicants to adhere to a particular faith. Some have been getting federal grants for years.

Devotion to Jesus' teachings has driven Habitat for Humanity to build 150,000 homes for the poor around the world since 1976. It welcomes people of all faiths onto its staff and volunteer force and into its new homes, according to its Web site.

Habitat got its first federal grant in 1996, says spokeswoman Tabitha Steinbock. And it didn't need any exemption from anti-discrimination law to do it.

No doubt the Orange County Mission Rescue is run by sincere folks who truly offer a lifeline to the desperate and the poor. I don't dispute that faith can play a powerful role in people's lives.

But don't use my money to pay an employer who turns away job applicants because of their religion.

Separating Church and State

``I am a 100 percent believer that if you only use your own, privately raised funds, you can do whatever you want,'' says the Reverend Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

The United Methodist Children Home in Decatur, Georgia, gets no federal funds. But 40 percent of its budget comes from the state, say lawyers for Yorker and Aimee Bellmore, a social worker fired by the home after it learned she is a lesbian. They are represented by Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, a gay rights group.

The home is in negotiations while Georgia, which was also sued, has in recent weeks settled. The state has agreed to fund no group that discriminates in hiring. Clergy positions are allowed, but only if the salary is paid privately.

It's an idea that surely would have pleased Alan Yorker's grandfather, if not President Bush.

Last Updated: October 31, 2003 10:04 EST