Accounting and the Catholic Church

[PinkoDonkey]

Help me think this through...

I just read this letter from a reader at Andrew Sullivan's blog.

The reader makes an interesting observation:
The main point of contention for the Catholic bishops was the "segregation" of federal funds from any dollars which might go toward an abortion. They saw this basically as an accounting gimmick. But isn't this the same sort of "gimmick" that is used when tax dollars pay for desks and pencils in Catholic schools but not Bibles or other items for religious instruction?

Does this make sense? Is this accurate? If so, should we be calling our elected officials to get rid of this accounting "gimmick"?

Thoughts?

[Motown_Johnny]

1. are you sure tax dollars are used to pay for desks and pencils in Catholic schools?

Or are we talking vouchers? (which I believe are not federal funded at this time)

[PinkoDonkey]

3. No, I'm not sure

I don't know that much about how Catholic schools are funded. I do remember, way back in the day, that our teachers couldn't use the projector when teaching religion class because it was paid for by the local school district and that our non-religious books had stamps in them marking them property of the local school district. Now, this could just be faulty memory on my part. Anyone have something more factual than my memory?

[Motown_Johnny]

4. I spent 12 years in Catholic schools and don't remember anything like that

[Wizard777]

6. Yes the government does fund Parochial schools.

This is the current argument on that. In providing funding for non religious education. The government is relieving the church of financial obligations that frees up funds to spend on Religion. So the government is indirectly financing religion.

[PinkoDonkey]

8. Thanks, Wizard!

[jwirr]

5. I don't know about desks and pencils but I know that they do pay

for some textbooks - science, etc. for private schools. Also for special ed supplies.

[aSpeckofDust]

2. They need their tax exempt removed. It's time they start paying for their politics. nt

[Joe Bacon]

7. Tax the churches.

Make the bishops pay their fair share of taxes. Make them pay if they want to play.