Targeting the Catholic Church and citing discrimination, a liberal academic group is urging the United States government to revoke federal protection from religious charities.

A faction of law professors from different institutions got together for the Columbia University "Public Rights/Private Conscience Project" releasing a memo that stated FBOs (Faith based organizations) should not be granted immunity as far as religious non-discrimination laws are concerned. The memo also stated that FBOs should not be exempt from giving services in breach of their religious principle while functioning as federal contractors.

The established goal of the Project is to organize advocates, attorneys as well as scholars to establish and arrange new ways of building anticipated clash between religious liberty and sexual rights, LifesiteNews reported.

The Project is backed by a leading Planned Parenthood donor, the Ford Foundation along with the pro-homosexual ARCUS Foundation, both of which have invested a great deal of money into taking a stand against the Catholic Church for its viewpoint on homosexual "marriage."

The Columbia Conscience Project memo mentions the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) several times, targeting the Bishops' Conference for not permitting contraception and abortion when taking government funding. The memo further expresses apprehension in regards to transgender individuals receiving adequate healthcare or housing while being served by religious organizations that receive federal grants.

The group further blames the USCCB for making use of influence citing the huge number of programming it offers, and claims this is facilitated by the government as they grant them so much money.

According to the paper, if government agencies did not allow discrimination as well as other similar exemptions within their programs, non-profits that are willing to observe the grant terms would have a stronger motivation to maximize their activities to compete for these grants.

As per the Columbia document, eliminating religious exemptions for hiring would not make a lot of difference for FBOs. In addition, the lawyers' 16-page paper also intends to put pressure on President Obama to nullify the Bush Administration memo, ProPublica reports.

The paper urges the federal government to strictly direct that FBOs that they cannot discriminate against or even deny material services to intended beneficiaries of federally funded programs.

The Obama administration has strongly supported programs as well as special rights for "transgender" individuals and LGBT, and even warned or sued agencies that refuse to comply.

Back in 2014, the Obama administration, without involving Congress declared that the civil rights provisions aimed to avert inequity against women in the 1972 federal law Title IX is also applicable to transgender individuals.

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Topics U.S., Columbia University, Lgbt, Transgender