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Religious neutrality beats hostility again
Last July, U.S. District Court Judge Gladys Kessler ruled that the federal AmeriCorps program was unconstitutionally establishing religion by funding teachers at Roman Catholic schools along with those in public schools. The line between religious and secular tasks "has become completely blurred," she lamented.

Yesterday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit unanimously reversed Kessler's opinion, drawing heavily on the Supreme Court's 2002 decision allowing school vouchers to be used at religious schools.

"When a government program is neutral toward religion and 'provides assistance directly to a broad class of citizens who, in turn, direct government aid to religious schools wholly as a result of their own genuine and independent private choice,' the Establishment Clause is not violated," Judge A. Raymond Randolph wrote, quoting from the Zelman v. Simmons-Harris voucher decision.

In bringing the suit, the American Jewish Congress (AJC) focused on the program's allowing teachers to teach religion courses outside the program. Where Kessler sees blurriness, Randolph sees clarity.

"Individual participants who elect to teach religion in addition to secular subjects do so only as a result of 'their own genuine and independent private choice,'" he note. "The AmeriCorps program creates no incentives for participants to teach religion; they may count only the time they spend engaged in non-religious activities toward their service hours requirement. And if they do teach religious subjects, they are prohibited from wearing the AmeriCorps logo when they are doing so."

AJC general counsel Marc Stern is still sore. "One minute they are teaching religion and those kids are supposed to believe they are Catholic school employees," he told the Associated Press. "The bell rings and the next minute they are teaching math and now they are representatives of the Corporation for National and Community Service."

And then, if the kid sees the teacher at Mass on Sunday, they'll be even more convinced that Uncle Sam is ordering them to worship the Pope! Best to replace teachers with robots.

Another Jewish group welcomes the ruling.

"This is another hopeful sign that the constitutional law with regard to the relationship of religion and state is on the right track — toward moderation and toleration, rather than the discrimination which some continue to seek," Nathan Diament, director of public policy for the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations, told the New York Sun.

The Sun, UPI analyst Michael Kirkland, and others agree that yesterday's decision, in Kirkland's words, "is part of a growing judicial trend over the last decade to allow some government support of religious activity, as long as it is not too direct."

H. James Towey, director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, noted that fewer than 1 percent of AmeriCorps' 75,000 participants teach in religious schools, but he told The Washington Post that the decision still has broad ramifications.

"What the court today did … was make clear that faith-based mentors were not going to have to sacrifice their religious identity to participate in this program," he said.

Habitat-Fuller imbroglio worsens
The board of directors for Habitat for Humanity International yesterday unanimously reaffirmed its decision to fire founder Millard Fuller as president in January, The Washington Post reports on its front page.

But the battle over Fuller's firing threatens to boil over, the article continues. Fuller is threatening to create a rival organization that will deal directly with friendly international affiliates, funding projects while circumventing Habitat headquarters in Americus, Georgia.

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March (Web-only) 2005, Vol. 49