5.22.2006

drawing a line...

So jails have contracts with evangelical Christian organizations, who come into the jails and perform religious services (including Ramadan and Rosh Hashanah, as well as Christmas), according to this article in the Washington Post. The ACLU, though, is arguing that the contracts (which include public money going to the Christian organization) violate the separation of church and state.

It's somewhat odd to me that this evangelical organization would perform services for other religions. How could they effectively do this and remain evangelical (which is partially what the ACLU is saying, I think)? However, it doesn't strike me as something that is discriminatory if the organization is willing to perform services for all religions. It would be different if the organization was performing services for Ramadan that included the message of Jesus Christ, but it doesn't sound like they're doing that from the article. Finally, how does the jail portion out funds to different religions in a nondiscriminatory way? What if 95% of the inmates are of the Christian faith? On the other hand, shouldn't we as a nation protect the interests of the 5%?

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Nice idea with this site its better than most of the rubbish I come across.
»

12:46 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm impressed with your site, very nice graphics!
»

6:51 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home