\n\tWhen Hurricane Sandy struck the East Coast last October, it did some damage to the Reverend Mark Lukens\u2019 Bethany Congregational Church in East Rockaway,
\n\tNew York. Many property owners in the area need some assistance to rebuild. That doesn\u2019t mean, however, that Lukens is expecting a government handout for
\n\this church.\n<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cIt is bad for religious communities to take government money for religious purposes and buildings, because it undermines the ability of religious
\n\tcommunities and their leaders to be independent moral voices,\u201d Lukens said. \u201cHow can I call the gov\u00adernment to task on a moral issue when I\u2019m trying to do
\n\tit from a pulpit the government paid for?\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\tA <\/em>New York Times<\/em> report estimated that the storm did more than $80 billion in damage to the states of New York and New Jersey. Included \n\tAs a result, many of these religious organizations are seeking assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to rebuild, even though \n\tThe reason for this is simple: The church-state separation safeguards in the U.S. Constitution bar public funding of religion. But that hasn\u2019t stopped some \n\tAt first glance, it would seem that those who want to rebuild religious sanctuaries with taxpayer dollars face long odds of success. In August 2005 many \n\tThe situation is different this time. In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, U.S. Representative Christopher H. Smith (R-N.J.) introduced H.R. 592. The Federal \n\tSponsors of the measure included Representatives Peter King (R-N.Y.), Grace Meng (D-N.Y.), and Trent Franks (R-Ariz.).\n<\/p>\n \n\tLearning of this constitutionally problematic proposal in February, Maggie Garrett, legislative director for Americans United for the Separation of Church \n\tIn a February 12 letter to lawmakers Garrett wrote, \u201cAlthough it may not seem easy in times of tragedy to tell those seeking aid that they are ineligible \n\tDespite that warning, the bill pas\u00adsed 354-72 on February 13. Critics, including Americans United, noted the spread of a great deal of misinformation \n\tIn fact, Garrett said that current law allows disaster aid to all nonprofits, including religious entities, if they provide \u201cessential services of a \n\tPurely religious institutions are expected to turn to congregants to pay for reconstruction and repairs or rely on private insurance. Some may also be \n\tThe Obama administration did not take a formal position on H.R. 592, but a FEMA statement on it warned that the measure is likely to result in church-state \n\tAt a time when Congress is supposedly looking for ways to cut the budget deficit, FEMA said the bill would add at least $75 million in new federal \n\tAmong the lawmakers who voted against the bill were 66 Democrats, including Representatives Jerrold Nadler (N.Y.) and Bobby Scott (Va.), and six \n\tNadler was critical of the way the bill was pushed through hurriedly, bypassing the committee hearing process. \u201cThis bill should be subject to hearings in \n\tAs for the proposal itself, Nadler said it raised serious church-state concerns.\n<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cDirect government funding of churches, synagogues, and mosques has always been held to be unconstitutional,\u201d he said, \u201cand the decisions of the Supreme \n\tScott expressed a similar sentiment during floor remarks. \u201cWhile the devastation caused to many communities after Hurricane Sandy is severe, and while I \n\tAmash\u2019s stance was a bit of a surprise, given his ties to the Tea Party. But he was staunchly against the measure, stating on his Facebook page that the \n\tIn addition to the strong overall backing H.R. 592 received from the House, it was also supported by a range of religious lobbies, including the U.S. \n\tNathan Diament, executive director of public policy for the Orthodox Union\u2019s Institute for Public Affairs, has been especially vocal. National Public Radio \n\tA press statement from Americans United stated that a \u201cfundamental rule of American life is that congregants, not the taxpayers, pay for the construction \n\tIf aid proponents get their way, critics say, a precedent would be set for government funding of all sorts of religious groups, including those that preach \n\t\u201cThe Westboro Baptists disrupt military funerals with homophobic slurs,\u201d said Alfred Doblin, an editorial writer with the North Jersey Record<\/em>. \u201cI \n\tH.R. 592 faces an unclear future in the U.S. Senate. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) came out in support of the measure, but it is not known just how \n\tThe bill\u2019s future is murky because of the sensitivity of the issue. Diament said more than 200 churches and synagogues in New York alone have already \n\tAmericans United was joined in opposing the bill by the American Civil Liberties Union, the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, the Interfaith \n\t\u201cTheological and constitutional principles ensuring religious liberty must apply and be followed in the hard cases as well as the easy cases,\u201d said the \n\tThe New York Times <\/em>is also on the side of church-state separation. In a March 5 editorial the newspaper observed, \u201cSupreme Court rulings \n\tAt least one group, it seems, simply found the situation too difficult to oppose. The Anti- De\u00adfamation League withdrew its opposition to H.R. 592 in \n\t\u201cThis position does not represent any lessening of ADL\u2019s concerns regarding the risk to religious liberty posed when government funds transmitted to \n\tAmericans United Garrett said she understands why some would be reluctant to speak out against FEMA funding for houses of worship, but even in the face of \n\t\u201cThis is a challenging time and a challenging issue,\u201d Garrett said. \u201cI feel for everyone who suffered losses from the storm. But I also know that we must When Hurricane Sandy struck the East Coast last October, it did some damage to the Reverend Mark Lukens\u2019 Bethany Congregational Church in East Rockaway, New York. Many property owners in the area need some assistance to rebuild. That doesn\u2019t mean, however, that Lukens is expecting a government handout for his church. \u201cIt is bad for<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[294],"tags":[126],"class_list":["post-6223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-july-august-2013","tag-july-august-2013"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6223\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\tin that figure is damage to an unknown number of houses of worship, some of which say they can\u2019t afford to make repairs on their own.\n<\/p>\n
\n\ttraditionally houses of worship have not been eligible for federal taxpayer subsidies.\n<\/p>\n
\n\treligious lobbies from pushing a bill through the U.S. House of Representatives that would give direct taxpayer aid to houses of worship.\n<\/p>\n
\n\treligious buildings near the Gulf Coast were damaged by Hurricane Katrina, which remains the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history. In the aftermath
\n\tof that storm the George W. Bush administration declined on constitutional grounds to allocate federal money to rebuild religious structures. It was a
\n\tsomewhat surprising move, given that Bush was an outspoken Religious Right ally and championed \u201cfaith-based\u201d funding.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tDisaster As\u00adsistance Nonprofit Fairness Act makes churches, synagogues, mos\u00adques, and other houses of worship eligible for FEMA grants \u201cwithout regard to
\n\tthe religious character of the facility or the primary religious use of the facility.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\tand State, advised all members of the House of Representatives to vote against the measure. Garrett, who was born and raised on the Jersey shore and whose
\n\tparents\u2019 home was damaged by Sandy, had just a few days to try to convince lawmakers to reject the bill because it was rushed to the floor without the
\n\tusual round of hearings.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tfor government grants, the bar on the government rebuilding of houses of worship is an important limitation that exists to protect religious freedom for
\n\tall. It upholds the fundamental principle that no taxpayer should be forced to fund a religion with whom he or she disagrees and that the government should
\n\tnever support building religious sanctuaries.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\tbefore the vote, such as claims that current disaster relief regulations discriminate against houses of worship purely because they are religious.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tgovernmental nature to the general public.\u201d Religiously affiliated homeless shelters, senior citizen centers, and rehab facilities are eligible for
\n\tassistance, but houses of worship themselves are not.\n<\/p>\n
\n\teligible for low-interest loans from the Small Business Administration.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tlawsuits. Passage would require the agency to fund repairs of sanctuaries and altars, the statement said, and decide whether to pay for damaged religious
\n\tart, icons, prayer books, Torah arks, and stained-glass windows.\n<\/p>\n
\n\texpenditures for houses of worship even in \u201cnoncatastrophic\u201d years.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tRepublicans, including Representative Justin Amash (Mich.).\n<\/p>\n
\n\tthe Judiciary Committee, with input from constitutional scholars, and due consideration of these significant constitutional issues, before we take such a
\n\tradical step,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tCourt establishing that principle remain good law to this day.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\tempathize with the desire to assist all who have suffered severe losses, direct government funding to houses of worship, whether for building or
\n\trebuilding, remains unconstitutional,\u201d asserted Scott.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tbill \u201cskews the law away from fairness\u201d by making religious buildings automatically eligible for reconstruction aid when other entities aren\u2019t. \u201cHouses of
\n\tworship,\u201d he said, \u201caren\u2019t \u2018of a governmental nature.\u2019 To suggest that they are challenges the independence of these institutions, undermines First
\n\tAmendment protections, and threatens religious liberty.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\tConference of Catholic Bishops, the Union of Orthodox Jewish Con\u00adgre\u00adgations of America, and the Am\u00aderican Jewish Committee, among others.\n<\/p>\n
\n\treported that Diament has spoken with the Obama administration to push for a change in FEMA rules, and he charged that Americans United and its allies are
\n\tout of step with current interpretations of the First Amendment.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tand repair of houses of worship. We must not let a storm sweep away the wall of separation between church and state.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\thate. Some have noted that the House bill\u2019s terms would open the door to public aid to such congregations as the Reverend Fred Phelps\u2019 Westboro Bap\u00adtist
\n\tChurch.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tdo not want my tax dollars to rebuild their Kansas-based church if a tornado blows it away. Nor would I want tax dollars to replace the sanctuary of some
\n\tFlorida preacher who wants to burn Qurans. These religious spaces are wombs where hate-driven ideologies are given life.\u201d Some might dismiss this as
\n\tobscuring the issue, sure that such groups would not receive the subsidy. But if that were the case, then government would be stating its religious
\n\tpreferences and that is also a dangerous direction to take.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tmany senators share her views. The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty said thus far senators have not been receptive to moving the bill. Daniel Blomberg,
\n\tlegal counsel for the Becket Fund, which offered a constitutional analysis of H.R. 592 for Congress, told Breitbart News that several members of the House
\n\thave reached out to the Senate, but as of late March had not received a response.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tapplied for FEMA grants.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tAlliance, the Secular Coalition for America, and the Baptist Joint Com\u00admittee for Religious Liberty (BJC).\n<\/p>\n
\n\tReverend Brent Walker, BJC executive director. \u201cWe enjoy unprecedented religious liberty in this country precisely because, over the past 222 years, we
\n\thave stuck to our principles of voluntary, self-sufficient religion and disallowed governmental help or harm, even in the tough cases.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\tinterpreting the First Amendment\u2019s prohibition against establishment of rel\u00adi\u00adgion have long barred the direct use of tax money to build, repair, or
\n\tmaintain buildings devoted to religious services or other religious activities. . . . The First Amendment does not allow a Hurricane Sandy exception to pay
\n\tfor the rebuilding of damaged houses of worship.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\tFebruary, although it does continue to oppose government funding of religion in general.\n<\/p>\n
\n\treligious institutions directly advance the religious mission of those institutions,\u201d the organization said in a statement to the media. \u201cWe continue to
\n\tbelieve as a matter of principle that keeping government out of religion is the best way to safeguard religious freedom.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\ttrag\u00adedies, the Constitution cannot be ignored.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tresist the temptation to use a disaster\u2014even one of this magnitude\u2014as an excuse to violate core constitutional values.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"