Courts Challenge Government-Financed Religious Program

Since the year 2000, courts have ruled that more than a dozen federally financed efforts break the constitution’s ban on mixing government and religion, but such projects continue to receive money, reports The New York Times in special series on faith and government aid.

In an Iowa case, a judge ordered a prison ministry to repay more than $1.5-million in government money, in what the paper says was a rare effort to levy a penalty. The Iowa judge said a prison ministry’s effort to help jail inmates broke the constitution by emphasizing evangelical Protestant views and not encouraging participation by people of differing views.

The ministry has appealed the court’s decision, and the attorneys general of nine states are protesting the decision.

Jay Hein, director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, said the decision in that case was unfair and that in general, he thinks the benefits of federal financing of religious programs outweighed the risk that the Constitution would be violated.

Government auditors have also raised many questions about the efforts to mingle government and religion, the newspaper said, but new federal rules may make it tougher for auditors to continue to monitor programs.

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