As the Amos case discussed in the text indicates, religious organizations such as churches and even secular activities conducted by religious organizations are exempted from Title VII to the limited extent that they are free to discriminate on the basis of religion. The most common result of this “license to discriminate” is that some religious organizations confine their hiring, or at least a large portion of it, to members of their organization, regardless of the qualifications of other individuals for positions.It is important to note, though, that religious organizations are not exempted from Title VII’s prohibition against discrimination based on race, color, gender or national origin. This raises the interesting question, based on the doctrine of a number of Christian churches that prohibit females from being ordained as priests or ministers, of whether a female member of such a denomination could successfully sue it for gender discrimination under Title VII for denying her a position as an ordained priest or minister.While the U.S. Supreme Court has not directly resolved this question, the consensus of the Courts of Appeals has been that churches and equivalent religious organizations are exempt from Title VII protections with respect to employment decisions concerning ministers and other clergy.
