Churches and regulations governing employers

Lots of complaining lately, most prominently from the Catholic Church, that the Government is anti-religion by insisting that the same rules that apply to all employers apply to the church when it is acting as an employer (and often getting government funds to support their activities).  The claim is that it is unconstitutional to not exempt churches from regulations they object to on moral grounds.

The Constitutional claim stands the purpose of the first amendment on its head.  The fundamental purpose of the religion clauses in the first amendment were to protect people from State enforced religious belief.  It is not to grant Churches an exemption from the same regulations all other employers have to obey.

For me personally it is a little galling coming from an organization with a long history of being three steps behind the evolution of human rights.  The Crusades, the inquisition, threatening the life of Galileo for having the audacity to point out the earth rotates around the moon.  More modernly it is matters like collaboration with the fascists in pre-WW II era, opposing laws granting women control over their own bodies or laws aiming to require gays be treated as normal citizens.  Not to forget the fact the highest officials in the church of today turned a blind eye to institutionalized sexual abuse of children by their priests for generations - often promoting the offenders, and are still sometimes trying to sweep the issue under a rug.

From where I sit the Catholic Church is no more or less moral than the average Multi-National Corporation.  It's just another big amoral organization whose principal function is the survival of the organization and the power structure that controls it.  They differ from Exxon, or Bank of America mostly in what they are selling.