MAJOR win in IA regarding the separation of church and state

[bobbieinok]

(Also see dogemperor's long post at

http://www.talk2action.org

discussing in great detail the many aspects of Colson's program that are coercive and definitely promoting a dominionist brand of christianity. Those concerned about the attack on the separation of church and state and the dominionist christianity the religious right is pushing must read his talk2action post.)

http://www.abpnews.com/1074.article

Court says prison program violates First Amendment

By Robert Marus

Published: June 6, 2006

DES MOINES, Iowa (ABP) -- In what could be a major setback for government's ability to fund religious charities, a federal judge has ruled against an Iowa program designed to rehabilitate prisoners through Christianity.

U.S. District Judge Robert Pratt of Des Moines ruled June 2 that the InnerChange Freedom Initiative as it has been run at Iowa's Newton Correctional Facility violates the First Amendment's ban on government establishment of religion.

"For all practical purposes, the state has literally established an Evangelical Christian congregation within the walls of one its penal institutions, giving the leaders of that congregation, i.e., InnerChange employees, authority to control the spiritual, emotional, and physical lives of hundreds of Iowa inmates," Pratt wrote.

Much of Pratt's 140-page decision dealt with recounting the details of Iowa's InnerChange program. He found that participants were coerced with living-arrangement advantages unavailable to those who did not participate in the program, that the program and the prison had no sufficient way to monitor whether government funds given to it were spent on secular or sectarian purposes, and that the program was focused on Bible study and conversion.

"While such spiritual and emotional 'rewiring' may be possible in the life of an individual and lower the risk of committing other crimes, it cannot be permissible to force taxpayers to fund such an enterprise under the Establishment Clause," he wrote.

Pratt also said the amount "of religious indoctrination supported by state funds and other state support in this case in comparison" to other church-state cases "is extraordinary."

more....

[msongs]

1. the fascists are RECRUITING criminals - like gangs joining the marines to

learn the ropes of violent military style street combat so they can go back to their gangs and spread the tactics.

Msongs
www.msongs.com
batik & digital art
get YOUR pics on shirts!

[BrklynLiberal]

2. And they are doing it with OUR tax money!!!!!!

[tsuki]

3. Another "activist judge." He'd best be careful. The religious

right will not tolerate him and his interfering ways.