House Republicans and Democrats do not agree on much these days, but they managed to join together last month to breach the proper separation between church and state. By a 354-to-72 vote, the House approved a measure, sponsored by Representative Christopher Smith, a New Jersey Republican, and Representative Grace Meng, a New York Democrat, that would authorize the Federal Emergency Management Agency to make direct grants to churches, mosques, synagogues, and other houses of worship “without regard to the religious character of the facility or the primary religious use of the facility”.
In the bipartisan lunge to give in to political pressure from some religious groups after Hurricane Sandy, the House dispensed with holding even a single hearing before passing the bill, which abandons decades of Supreme Court precedent and longstanding administrative rules barring direct taxpayer financing of religious activities.
Complaints that current rules unfairly discriminate against houses of worship are simply wrong. Churches, like most nonprofit organizations and businesses, are eligible for government loans to make storm-related repairs. They are also eligible for disaster assistance grants, just as secular nonprofit organizations are, if they dedicate at least fifty percent of their facilities to providing “essential services of a governmental nature”, like a community homeless shelter or soup kitchen open to the general public on a nondiscriminatory basis. Representative Justin Amash of Michigan, one of only six Republicans to vote against the bill, rightly argued that it unfairly exempts churches from the neutral requirement that beneficiaries of federal aid have to provide key secular services.
Supreme Court rulings interpreting the First Amendment’s prohibition against establishment of religion have long barred the direct use of tax money to build, repair or maintain buildings devoted to religious services or other religious activities.
President George W. Bush’s administration, which accelerated government backing for “faith-based” social service programs, did not order FEMA financing for church reconstruction after Hurricane Katrina. It is troubling that two-thirds of House Democrats went along with the new measure, and that only two Democratic lawmakers, Jerrold Nadler of New York and Bobby Scott of Virginia, vocally challenged the dismantling of the church-state barrier. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, an influential voice on Hurricane Sandy aid, has also endorsed the measure.
The First Amendment does not allow a Hurricane Sandy exception to pay for the rebuilding of damaged houses of worship. The Senate should let the bill die.
Rico says what part of 'Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion' do these idiots not understand?
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