Tag: separation of church and state

How the Supreme Court found its faith and put ‘religious liberty’ on a winning streak

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The Supreme Court’s current term is winding down, but there are still several cases to be decided – and, as with most terms, a controversy over church-state matters looms.

Fulton vs. City of Philadelphia is among the cases still to be decided. It centers on a requirement that private agencies that receive city funding – in this case an adoption agency – do not discriminate against any community they serve, including members of the LGBTQ community. This nondiscrimination requirement applies to both religious and nonreligious organizations. But the adoption service at the heart of the case – Catholic Social Services – refused to comply, asserting that not being allowed to discriminate against gay couples infringed upon its religious beliefs. 

It would appear on first glance that the city’s position is strong – after all, it provides the money and has a legitimate interest in ensuring that funding does not perpetuate discrimination based on sexual orientation. Continue reading.

Jewish group fears Trump’s new push threatens the separation of church and state

AlterNet logoThe head of a Jewish Democratic group condemned President Trump’s recently announced policies on religion as “a concerted attempt to chip away at the critically important separation of church and state.”

“The ‘religious freedom’ regulations announced by the White House regarding prayer in school and at nine federal agencies represent a concerted attempt to chip away at the critically important separation of church and state,” Jewish Democratic Council of America executive director Halie Soifer told Salon by email. “It’s also a transparent attempt by the President to pander to his Evangelical base. President Trump is using the pretext of ‘religious freedom’ to fulfill his broader political agenda as opposed to prioritizing the actual freedom of Americans, as protected by the First Amendment.”

On Thursday the Trump administration announced a number of measures that further the agenda of Christian conservatives. Nine federal agencies — including the Department of Justice, the Education Department and the Department of Health and Human Services — will remove restrictions on religious social service providers that use federal tax money requiring them to inform beneficiaries of secular organizations that could provide the same services. The Education Department will compel states to inform the federal government if there are complaints regarding students’ rights to pray, even though this requirement does not apply to other discrimination accusations. The department will also submit a guidance letter to the states requiring local districts to certify that they have no rules or regulations conflicting with students’ right to pray. In addition, according to BuzzFeed, the Department of Education will issue a draft regulation requiring all public colleges and universities that receive federal funding to provide the same rights, privileges and money to religious students groups that secular student groups have. Continue reading.

It took centuries to fulfill James Madison’s unique vision of religious freedom. Donald Trump threatens to undo it

AlterNet logoAmerican history is checkered with ugly bouts of religious persecution—from Protestant mobs burning convents in the 1830s, to Henry Ford publishing anti-Semitic propaganda in the 1920s, to anti-Muslim violence after September 11. But there was one thing that, until 2016, had never happened before in the history of our country. No one had ever won the presidency on a campaign that prominently and persistently attacked a religious minority.

As a candidate, Donald Trump didn’t just demonize Muslims rhetorically. He offered specific policies that ran against our shared consensus about religious freedom. He proposed banning Muslims from immigrating to the country, claiming that Muslim refugees were “trying to take over our children and convince them how wonderful ISIS is and how wonderful Islam is.” Just as stunning, Trump said he would “absolutely” require American Muslims to register in a special database to make it easier for the government to track them. Finally, he said that “there’s absolutely no choice” but to close down some American mosques as a way of combating extremism. Continue reading “It took centuries to fulfill James Madison’s unique vision of religious freedom. Donald Trump threatens to undo it”

A conservative Christian group is pushing Bible classes in public schools nationwide — and it’s working

GLASGOW, KENTUCKY — Todd Steenbergen leads worship services in church sometimes, but today he was preaching in a different venue: the public-school classroom where he teaches.

“A lot of people will look at the Beatitudes and glean some wisdom from them,” he told the roomful of students, pointing toward the famous blessings he had posted on the board, some of the best-known verses in the Bible. “I want you to think about what kind of wisdom we can get from these today.”

While Steenbergen was urging students to draw lessons from the Bible here in southern Kentucky, students in Paducah — halfway across the state — were reading from the Gospels as well, in a classroom where they drew pictures of the cross and of Adam and Eve walking with dinosaurs, hanging them on the walls.

View the complete May 8 article by Julie Zauzmer on The Washington Post website here.

Justice Neil Gorsuch says no-one can sue to stop the government from establishing religion

Theocrat Gorsuch says no American can challenge a Christian religious display on government property.

One inherent danger of allowing a religious minority to install a puppet controlled by religious fanatics in the White House is the now unfolding threat of government officially establishing religion – the Christian religion. Any American’s confidence that the U.S. Constitution is a protection against government establishing religion is grossly misplaced and, that belief is about to be disabused by the current religious conservatives responsible for adjudicating the law of the land.

Because a nearly half-century-old Supreme Court ruling prevented the government from advancing religion, the wall of separation between church and state is almost certainly going to be eviscerated by the Christian conservatives on the current Supreme Court. The crusade to demolish the wall of separation is being advanced by one of the Heritage Foundation SCOTUS nominees confirmed shortly after Trump corrupted every aspect of  the government his tiny little hands touched. However, it is noteworthy that Neil Gorsuch’s theocratic crusade is wholly supported by Trump’s other SCOTUS appointee, religious serial liar and sexual abuser Brett Kavanaugh.

View the complete March 28 article by Something Rmuse from the Daily Kos on the AlterNet website here.

DeVos proposes federal tax credits to advance school choice

Credit: Sarah Silbiger, The New York Times

The Trump administration renewed its push for school choice on Thursday with a proposal to provide $5 billion a year in federal tax credits for donations made to groups offering scholarships for private schools, apprenticeships and other educational programs.

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos unveiled the plan as a “bold proposal” to give students more choices without diverting money from public schools.

“What’s missing in education today is at the core of what makes America truly great: freedom,” DeVos said. “Kids should be free to learn where and how it works for them.”

Legislation for the tax credits is being introduced by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Rep. Bradley Byrne, R-Ala.

View the complete February 28 article by Collin Binkley of the Associated Press on The Star Tribune website here.

Doug Wardlow on Separation of Church and State

Anyone concerned about this issue should be award of Mr. Wardlow’s statement earlier this year in radio interview on the Justice and Drew program:

HOST: “The separation of church and state, which isn’t a real concept.

WARDLOW: “No, it’s not. No, it’s just something Jefferson put in a letter. It’s not really a real concept at all.”

Here’s a link to the actual audio (note the laughter about this being a legitimate concept to avoid having this country fall into a theocracy).

The GOP’s effort to let churches endorse candidates is deeply unpopular

The following article by Jack Jenkins was posted on the ThinkProgress website November 28, 2017:

Credit: www.speaker.gov/blog

For years, a group of largely evangelical Christian conservatives have pushed the White House and Congress to abolish the so-called Johnson Amendment, a provision of the IRS tax code created in 1954 that bars non-profits and churches from endorsing political candidates. They now stand on the cusp of at least partly achieving their goal: a GOP-led Congress has quietly included a provision in their embattled tax bills that would chip away at restrictions prohibiting houses of worship from participating in electoral campaigns.

But even as supporters argue that removing the Johnson Amendment is meant to protect “religious liberty,” new survey results indicate the proposal is deeply unpopular with Democrats, Republicans, and even evangelical Christians. Continue reading “The GOP’s effort to let churches endorse candidates is deeply unpopular”

How the tax package could blur the separation of church and politics

The following article by Susan Anderson, Profession of Accounting, Elon University, was posted on the Conversation website November 22, 2017:

Rep. John Lewis, a Georgia Democrat, raised questions about the proposed changes to charity tax laws during a congressional hearing.

The tax package pending in Congress includes a provision that would leave churches and other nonprofits, which by law must be nonpartisan, suddenly free to engage in political speech.

This measure, currently only in the House version of the bill, could potentially change charitable life as we know it. Continue reading “How the tax package could blur the separation of church and politics”

Trump signs order aimed at allowing churches to engage in more political activity

The following article by John Wagner and Sarah Pulliam Bailey was posted on the Washington Post website May 4, 2017:

President Trump on Thursday said he would direct the Internal Revenue Service to relax enforcement of rules barring tax-exempt churches from participating in politics as part of a much-anticipated executive order on religious liberties.

The order — which Trump formally unveiled in a Rose Garden ceremony with religious leaders — also offers unspecified “regulatory relief” for religious objectors to an Obama administration mandate, already scaled back by the courts, that required contraception services as part of health plans. Continue reading “Trump signs order aimed at allowing churches to engage in more political activity”