A federal appeals court recently sent a strong message that city officials should tread carefully when giving aid to religious organizations.
A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the City of Boise, Idaho violated the First Amendment principle of church-state separation when it gave one religious group an exclusive license to conduct religious activities in a publicly owned and operated building.
In September 2005, the city leased a 34,000 sq. ft. furnished building to a group called the Boise Rescue Mission (BRM), a Christian non-profit organized to “share the Good News [of Jesus Christ]” and to provide other services to the city’s homeless population.
Rent for the $2.5 million “Boise Community House” building was a steal, costing the BRM only $1 a year over a five-year period. The city, and by extension the taxpayers of Boise, agreed to pay for up-keep and necessary building repairs.
Renamed “River of Life Rescue Mission” (alluding to passages from the Old and New Testaments) after BRM took over the facility, the homeless shelter housed nearly 100 single adult men. Shelter residents were strongly encouraged, if not required, to attend an hour-long worship service with “singing, scripture reading, prayer, testimonies and preaching” before each night’s dinner.
Americans United noted in its friend-of-the-court brief that the BRM publishes at the end of each month a “religion conversion ‘scorecard’ that reports the numbers and percentages of [shelter residents who] have ‘decided for Christ.’”
The 9th Circuit was asked to evaluate the constitutionality of the contract between the City of Boise and the BRM. The district court had ruled that the contract was permissible so long as shelter residents were not required to attend religious services. The 9th Circuit, however, ruled that the city’s $1 annual lease agreement “constitutes governmental aid which has the [unconstitutional] effect of advancing religion.”
In essence, the taxpayers of Boise were helping BRM advance its religious mission. The city’s willingness to lease the property for pennies on the dollar relieved a substantial financial burden, clearing the way for BRM to ramp up evangelistic efforts.
Circuit Judge David Thompson barred chapel services and other religious activities at the shelter as long as taxpayers foot the housing bill.
The ruling in Community House, Inc. v. City of Boise upholds a fundamental American principle that citizens should not be forced subsidize religion.
As Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1786, “To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves, is sinful and tyrannical…even the forcing him to support this or that teacher of his own religious persuasion, is depriving him of the comfortable liberty of giving his contributions to the particular pastor whose morals he would” most agree with.
It’s encouraging to see a federal court support the basic underpinnings of religious liberty. This decision puts one more brick back in the wall of separation between church and state.
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