\n\tThe American tradition of separation of church and state was established, in part, on a pillar of \u201cno aid\u201d to churches, fueled by Jefferson\u2019s rhetoric in
\n\this Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, which said: \u201cto compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he
\n\tdisbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\tBut this principle of \u201cno aid\u201d has morphed, over the years, due to the changing circumstances of American society, and the increasingly pervasive hand of
\n\tgovernment in every aspect of American life. Now comes a bill in Congress to include houses of worship in the FEMA aid package for victims of Hurricane
\n\tSandy. Sandy was followed by a firestorm over whether buildings used for worship should be included in Uncle Sam\u2019s largesse.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tThe \u201cno aid\u201d rejection of FEMA aid to churches is easy to argue: no aid means no aid. Separation of church and state means the church is on its own. The
\n\tstate is aloof from the business of religion. But this position woodenly ignores the values and ideas behind \u201cno aid.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\tOne core premise of the First Amendment is liberty of conscience. Government abstention from involvement in religion is designed to avoid the state
\n\tinfluencing or coercing religious beliefs and choices. Of course, this goal is not easy to achieve. Take vouchers, for example. Voucher programs for
\n\tprivate school tuition have been upheld as constitutional, but inherently favor those schools willing to comply with state-mandated curricula and
\n\tnondiscrimination requirements. Schools unwilling to meet the requirements are placed at a further economic disadvantage\u2014not only are they more expensive
\n\tthan public schools, but remain among the few unsubsidized private schools. This is not what the First Amendment was designed to do.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tSo what about FEMA aid to rebuild houses of worship? Such aid does not discriminate among victims. The Supreme Court long ago determined that neutral
\n\tprinciples of law must be used, for example, to resolve disputes about who properly owns church property. Neutral criteria determine whether a house of
\n\tworship qualifies for aid, and how much. There is no favoritism here. To exclude houses of worship would be both punitive and discriminatory. If the
\n\tgovernment is going to provide relief, all should be eligible regardless of the purpose. It would be ironic if FEMA aid was available to strip clubs, bars,
\n\tand liquor stores, but not to houses of worship.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tFEMA aid to houses of worship does not require taxpayers to financially support the propagation of abhorrent religious beliefs. Such aid simply recognizes
\n\tthat houses of worship belong in our community, and deserve respect. After all, the foundation of religious freedom is the golden rule, as nearly universal
\n\ta moral premise as ever existed. Respect for everyone\u2019s place of worship is not unconstitutional; it is as American as pulling together to help one another
\n\tin a time of crisis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The American tradition of separation of church and state was established, in part, on a pillar of \u201cno aid\u201d to churches, fueled by Jefferson\u2019s rhetoric in his Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, which said: \u201cto compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful<\/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-6224","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\/6224","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=6224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6224\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6224"}],"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=6224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}