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Stimulus Plan Includes Religious Discrimination
By Joe Murray, The Bulletin
Conservative leaders and civil rights attorneys are calling on Democrats to remove a provision from the monolithic economic stimulus package they say violates religious liberties and represents a payback to left-wing special interests groups.
Nestled away in the now $900 billion-plus stimulus is a provision some conservatives believe is a backdoor attempt to stifle religious dialogue in the public square. While the bill provides $20 billion for the modernization of school facilities — with $14 billion going to elementary and secondary schools and $6 billion for higher education — it also expressly prohibits using the funds to modernize buildings where religious activities take place.
Specifically, the bill reads
Continued On Page 6
“modernization, renovation, or repair of facilities – (i) used for sectarian instruction, religious worship, or a school or department of divinity; or (ii) in which a substantial portion of the functions of the facilities are subsumed in a religious mission.”
Civil rights attorneys worry the Obama administration could broadly define the term “religious worship” so that schools have an incentive to discourage religious speech.
“The so-called stimulus bill will lead to the banning of all religious activity from all public facilities by forbidding the use of funds to improve any facility where religious instruction or worship occurs,” said Mathew Staver, president and Founder of Liberty Counsel, a public interest law firm.
“In order to receive stimulus money, our public schools will have to expel after-school Bible clubs and weekend religious meetings. People who want to speak about their faith will be unwelcome in public places.”
Conservative leaders are fearful the threat of lawsuits from left-leaning civil rights groups, such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), will create a hostile environment towards religion on school campuses. They believe the rejection of religion will be viewed as a more lucrative alternative than facing lawsuits.
“By rejecting religion, these educators can also avoid costly ACLU lawsuits that will inevitably be filed. This section of the bill should be called the ACLU Full Employment Act since it will be a boon for their anti-Christian litigation,” said Andrea Lafferty, executive director of the Traditional Values Coalition.
Attorneys with the ACLU disagree.
“It’s almost a restatement of what the Constitution requires, so there’s nothing novel in what the House did in its restriction,” Christopher Anders, senior legislative counsel to the ACLU, told Fox News. “For 37 years, the law of the land is that the government can’t pay for buildings that are used for religious purposes.”
Ms. Lafferty said the provision is clearly unmerited and violates religious liberties.
“We are not asking that federal funding be used to construct a church, but if a campus ministry wants to hold a Bible study or Mass in the student activity building, we should be encouraging that not punishing a college for permitting it,” Ms. Lafferty said.
“But this new administration and its secularist allies in Congress don’t accept the First Amendment’s protections of religious activity even as they cite the First Amendment to defend all sorts of bizarre and offensive speech and art.”
This recent development is only the latest in a long list of questions raised by the economic stimulus and Republican lawmakers are using this prohibition of religious freedom as yet another example of how the Democratic package is geared more towards rewarding campaign backers rather than stimulating the ailing economy.
“Democrats are looking for every opportunity to purge faith and prayer from the public square. This will empower the ACLU with ambiguous laws that create liability for schools, universities, and student organizations,” U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., said when contacted by The Bulletin. “This is an attack on people of faith and I don’t think Americans will stand for it.”
The provision was in the House version of the stimulus, which sailed through despite universal Republican opposition, and is contained in the Senate version that stands to be voted on this week.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., did not respond to The Bulletin’s request for comment.
Joe Murray can be reached at jmurray@thebulletin.us
Nestled away in the now $900 billion-plus stimulus is a provision some conservatives believe is a backdoor attempt to stifle religious dialogue in the public square. While the bill provides $20 billion for the modernization of school facilities — with $14 billion going to elementary and secondary schools and $6 billion for higher education — it also expressly prohibits using the funds to modernize buildings where religious activities take place.
Specifically, the bill reads
Continued On Page 6
“modernization, renovation, or repair of facilities – (i) used for sectarian instruction, religious worship, or a school or department of divinity; or (ii) in which a substantial portion of the functions of the facilities are subsumed in a religious mission.”
Civil rights attorneys worry the Obama administration could broadly define the term “religious worship” so that schools have an incentive to discourage religious speech.
“The so-called stimulus bill will lead to the banning of all religious activity from all public facilities by forbidding the use of funds to improve any facility where religious instruction or worship occurs,” said Mathew Staver, president and Founder of Liberty Counsel, a public interest law firm.
“In order to receive stimulus money, our public schools will have to expel after-school Bible clubs and weekend religious meetings. People who want to speak about their faith will be unwelcome in public places.”
Conservative leaders are fearful the threat of lawsuits from left-leaning civil rights groups, such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), will create a hostile environment towards religion on school campuses. They believe the rejection of religion will be viewed as a more lucrative alternative than facing lawsuits.
“By rejecting religion, these educators can also avoid costly ACLU lawsuits that will inevitably be filed. This section of the bill should be called the ACLU Full Employment Act since it will be a boon for their anti-Christian litigation,” said Andrea Lafferty, executive director of the Traditional Values Coalition.
Attorneys with the ACLU disagree.
“It’s almost a restatement of what the Constitution requires, so there’s nothing novel in what the House did in its restriction,” Christopher Anders, senior legislative counsel to the ACLU, told Fox News. “For 37 years, the law of the land is that the government can’t pay for buildings that are used for religious purposes.”
Ms. Lafferty said the provision is clearly unmerited and violates religious liberties.
“We are not asking that federal funding be used to construct a church, but if a campus ministry wants to hold a Bible study or Mass in the student activity building, we should be encouraging that not punishing a college for permitting it,” Ms. Lafferty said.
“But this new administration and its secularist allies in Congress don’t accept the First Amendment’s protections of religious activity even as they cite the First Amendment to defend all sorts of bizarre and offensive speech and art.”
This recent development is only the latest in a long list of questions raised by the economic stimulus and Republican lawmakers are using this prohibition of religious freedom as yet another example of how the Democratic package is geared more towards rewarding campaign backers rather than stimulating the ailing economy.
“Democrats are looking for every opportunity to purge faith and prayer from the public square. This will empower the ACLU with ambiguous laws that create liability for schools, universities, and student organizations,” U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., said when contacted by The Bulletin. “This is an attack on people of faith and I don’t think Americans will stand for it.”
The provision was in the House version of the stimulus, which sailed through despite universal Republican opposition, and is contained in the Senate version that stands to be voted on this week.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., did not respond to The Bulletin’s request for comment.
Joe Murray can be reached at jmurray@thebulletin.us
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