For several years now, Americans United and other groups have spoken out against religious hiring bias in taxpayer-funded “faith-based” programs.
The issue to many people might seem like a legal abstraction. That’s why it’s helpful to occasionally have a human face put on the controversy.
Consider the case of Saad Mohammad Ali, a Washington state resident who volunteered […] Read More
The battle to end Washington, D.C.’s controversial school voucher program is entering a critical phase.
A little background: The plan, pitched as an “experiment,” was initially authorized in 2004 for five years. Heavily promoted by the Bush administration, it passed the House of Representatives by a single vote six years ago on a night when many voucher opponents were away […] Read More
The Washington Post yesterday added to its long list of editorials and columns in support of Washington, D.C.’s controversial school voucher plan.
The newspaper seems to have an obsession with keeping the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program alive, despite knowing that the program has shown no improvement in student performance, lacks accountability, hurts public schools and subsidizes religious education with taxpayer […] Read More
The one-year anniversary today of the unveiling of President Barack Obama’s version of the “faith-based” initiative has pushed the issue back into the spotlight. Unfortunately, the news is not good.
Speaking at yesterday’s National Prayer Breakfast, Obama boasted that he had “turned the faith-based initiative around.”
I was surprised to read that statement, because everything I see indicates that we’re […] Read More
A Florida appellate court ruled yesterday that public funding of a “faith-based” prison program may violate the state’s constitution.
The decision, Council for Secular Humanism, Inc. v. McNeil, serves as an important win for taxpayers who don’t want to be forced to support religion.
The case involves a challenge to contracts between the Florida Department of Corrections and two […] Read More
Bobby Jindal continues to “jet set” across Louisiana.
By jet, I of course mean helicopter – one funded entirely by taxpayers.
As the Wall of Separation noted last fall, the Louisiana governor spent $180,000 in taxpayer funds during his first eight months in office to travel by a State Police helicopter to many of the same churches he visited […] Read More
When I was a kid, our church decided it would be nice to have a social hall.
It was a pretty ambitious goal. We were a medium-sized congregation serving mostly blue-collar families in an economically depressed area. But the people sitting in the pews believed in the project and gave extra to support it. Kids like me even chipped in […] Read More
Americans United tends to stick to domestic church-state issues. We find that defending the church-state wall from attacks in this country is more than enough to keep us busy.
But every now and then an issue comes along overseas that attracts our attention. Such a story appears in today’s Washington Post. It concerns the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), […] Read More
South Carolina state officials have rejected a Christian television network’s tax-exempt status after discovering it brings in $39 million in profit, a Charlotte news station reports.
The Inspiration Network, a 24-hour-a day network that preaches “prosperity gospel” to more than 54 million U.S. households via cable and satellite, will begin paying nearly $800,000 in property taxes this October. […] Read More
Whenever public funds are involved, so is the Constitution.
That’s what Americans United reminded La Crosse County, Wisc., in an April letter to county officials regarding their $50,000 contract with a local Salvation Army homeless shelter.
AU had received complaints that the Salvation Army regularly presents prayers and sermons at meals and holds religious services at its shelter facility. Yet […] Read More