posted on February 16, 2004 09:26:20 PM newGovernor Wants Georgia to Fund Religion
January 17, 2004
Currently, the Georgian Constitution reads that "No money shall ever be taken from the public treasury, directly or indirectly, in aid of any church, sect, cult or religious denomination or any sectarian institution." The state government provides funding to religious charities, but with the stipulation that the services provided are faith-neutral. Georgia's governor Sonny Perdue wants to change all of that: change the state Constitution and thereby allow the state to fund religious evangelization.
An editorial in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution states:
The governor insists that the change, which voters would have to approve in November, simply provides legal cover for the long-standing practice of awarding state contracts to faith-based groups. Admitting there are no pending lawsuits seeking to stop social services contracts with faith-based groups, Perdue's attorney Robert Highsmith said, "This is to remove a legal barrier to what we're already engaging in."
Yet, this so-called legal crisis, so compelling that Perdue says it demands a constitutional change, hasn't been brought to the state's legal authority, the attorney general. "If someone is alleging there are legal concerns in regards to the state constitution, typically either our office will have raised them or we will be consulted on how best to remedy them," said Russ Willard, spokesman for the attorney general. Neither has occurred. The proposed constitutional change baffles legal scholars. "No change in the law in any way, shape or form is necessary to justify the status quo in Georgia," said Michael Broyde, academic director of the law and religion program at Emory.
Yes, you read it right: the reason being given for the change in the Constitution is false. The governor, it seems, is either completely ignorant about what he is doing or he is simply lying. There is no need to change the Georgia's state Constitution in order to make the current practice of funding faith-neutral services at religious charities more legally secure. So what could the real reason be?
Perdue's constitutional amendment would erode the wall between church and state first erected in the 1777 Georgia Constitution. While Perdue attributes the current church/state provision in Georgia's Constitution to the 19th century wave of anti-Catholic measures known as Blaine Amendments, the separation of church and state has been enshrined in the Georgia Constitution for 220 years. The separation wasn't only designed to keep government safe from religion, but also to safeguard religion from government. "A dependence on government money has been the death knell for religion in Western Europe," said Haynes. "If you go to the big cathedrals on Sundays, it's mostly tourists."
The proposed change in Georgia's state Constitution is simply another aspect of the assault on the separation of church and state that is being waged by the Christian Right in America. They find it intolerable that the government cannot fund their religious projects - in particular, the project of converting all Americans to their brand of reactionary, intolerant, and theocratic Christianity. They have failed miserably in their attempts to accomplish this goal on their own, but perhaps they are hoping that government funding will enhance their chances of success.
