The Americans With Disabilities Act, approved by Congress last year, is designed to protect people like Ms. Deatz who have physical and mental impairments from employers who refuse to make reasonable accommodations that would allow them to perform their jobs. But even when the law goes into effect next year, Ms. Deatz would not be protected because her employer was a church, which like private clubs are exempted from most of its provisions.

Many churches have recently undertaken efforts to reach out to the handicapped, and advocates for the disabled say that, on the whole, churches, synagogues and mosques are no better or no worse than other institutions and businesses in accommodating people with physical and mental impairments. But for disabled people, already buffeted by prejudice and isolation, rejection by a house of worship carries more emotional punch.

"When you are turned away from a church, it has a more profound impact," said Marca Bristow, a paraplegic who quit her Chicago church three years ago because she could not enter it to worship on her own in her wheelchair. "It's where you would expect the most welcome arms. When you don't find them there, it's a greater blow."

As the Americans with Disabilities Act made its way through Congress, a coalition of churches, backed by the White House, lobbied for a blanket exclusion on the ground that to include religious institutions would violate the doctrine of the separation of church and state. Further, some denominations worried about the law's costs, and some fundamentalists were concerned that because the law covers people infected with the virus that causes AIDS they might be forced to hire homosexuals.

Religious groups and the measure's backers reached a compromise under which churches would be subject to provisions forbidding discrimination in hiring and promotion, except when it comes to clergy. Religious bodies would be exempt from having to make their sanctuaries, community halls, day-care centers or worship services accessible to the disabled. Church officials say that despite the exemption they have a moral duty to comply with the spirit of the law, but that such compliance should be voluntary. 'More Is the Shame'