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This Speakout has not been edited.

By Janet Brazill

A question for the 2008 presidential candidates: “Will you abolish President Bush’s Faith-Based Initiatives and restore this country’s dedication to the separation of church and state?”

In 2002, President Bush devised a way to give religious groups access to the public purse. Bypassing Congress, which had rejected his scheme because the First Amendment prohibits it from funding religion, he used executive orders and regulatory changes to create Faith-Based offices at cabinet-level departments and lower federal offices. Religious groups were then urged to apply for billions in government contracts to do social work.

While former programs had mandated that religious organizations receiving government funding make no attempt to proselytize, an Executive Order now allows organizations to discriminate in hiring on religious grounds, and they may display icons, scriptures and other religious symbols in their publicly funded social programs.

According to the high court, this is unconstitutional: “Our history vividly illustrates that one of the specific evils feared by those who drafted the Establishment Clause … was that the taxing and spending power would be used to favor one religion over another or to support religion in general.” (Flast v Cohen, 1968) Examples of this now abound: Chuck Colson’s prison rehabilitation program, InnerChange, forces inmates to become evangelical Christians as the price of receiving rehabilitation, better treatment while in prison and the prospect of an earlier release. According to a lawsuit against it won by Americans United for Separation of Church & State, the program amounts to publicly funded religious indoctrination and disparages other faiths. Non-religious persons were often characterized by InnerChange staff as ‘pagan,’ and ‘sinful.’ Roman Catholic, Muslim and Native American faiths were denigrated by program staff. At trial, one inmate testified that an InnerChange counselor compared the Pope to Hitler.

Another case was brought to light by the Louisville Courier-Journal.

Operating several residential homes for children in the state’s custody, Kentucky Baptist Homes for Children (KBHC) is a major provider of social services for the state, having received $61 million from taxpayers since 2001. A recent lawsuit found that Catholic, Pentecostal, Jehovah’s Witness and atheist children felt pressured into giving up their religion. Both the state government and KBHC are accused of using public money to fund religious indoctrination and coercion.

Teen Ranch, an evangelical group that seeks to convince troubled juveniles to turn their lives around by embracing its version of Christianity, has lost its state contract with Michigan’s Family Independence Agency (FIA). In 2004, the FIA concluded that Teen Ranch had been coercing the children who have been placed in state care via the courts to participate in its religious activities, including prayer before meals, weekly devotional gatherings and church attendance, and the FIA withdrew its funding. Teen Ranch hired the Alliance Defense Fund to sue the agency. Both the U.S. District Court and the Appeals Court upheld the agency’s action, saying it would violate state law and the First Amendment principle of church-state separation if it did not cease its support of Teen Ranch.

With the courts so clearly supporting the principle of “separation of church and state,” we need a president who understands this concept. Yet some political consultants are advising candidates not to use that term because it raises red flags with people of faith. Those are the same religious leaders who are trying to destroy the separation principle, including James Dobson, of Focus on the Family. Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey named Dobson as “an example of somebody who never understood what they meant by separation of church and state.”

Simply put, taxpayers’ money should never be used to advance religion. Our country was founded on the principle of religious freedom, including freedom from other people’s religion. President Bush has sabotaged this basic value and our nation now stands at a crossroads. The election of 2008 will determine if our country returns to this constitutional principle or if we lose it forever.

Janet Brazill is a resident of Colorado Springs.

READER COMMENTS

Probably the most underqualified person to ever be voted into office.

I say we keep both eyes on the Boy Scouts of America and make sure that they don't corrupt American values. Same for the Girl Scouts. Do you really know what's in those cookies? Little League of America? Don't get me started.

I'm scared, terrified...do you know what its like to live under constant fear? Well? Where the hell is the ACLU when you really need them?

The failure of this nation to control immigration - illegal immigration - makes this an increasingly moot point! Social spending will end as citizens realize they are no longer the beneficiaries of the high taxes it takes to support social spending! Just as hospital emergency rooms are closing by the dozens - as the law requires treatment of illegals - schools will soon follow. Yes, they must "treat" or "educate" per the "law", but there is no legal requirement they "exist" and the taxpaying, law-abiding public is beginning to realize that fact!

The best way to defeat evangelicalism is to give them their head. They overreach again and again.

They always shoot themselves in the foot. We don`t have to do a thing to expose their nutty plans.

Religion and politics are like oil and water, won't mix. Make the line between church and state bold. Bush calls himself a man of god, but attacks Iraq, keeps liars on his payroll, and he lies to the American people. What a joke.

Isn't it great how I can fund all the religious activities I want and deny funding to stem cell research based on my religious views?

I can do this because the Constitution is just damned piece of paper (that I wipe my butt on every day).

I am the decider. I have spoken. Deal with it, you lowly peasants.

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