March 31, 1999

Texas RFRA moving in Legislature,
but gambling bill is languishing
___By Ken Camp
___Texas Baptist Communications
___AUSTIN--Church-state issues have moved to the forefront in the Texas Legislature, but a bill that would outlaw casino-style gambling machines appears stuck on the Senate's intent calendar.
___The state Senate on March 15 passed without opposition a bill to protect Texans' religious liberty from unjustified governmental interference. Nine days later, the Senate Education Committee narrowly passed a school voucher bill that opponents say would channel public dollars to religious schools.
___Meanwhile, SB 970, which would ban "eight-liners" and other slot machine-style gambling machines in Texas, has been reported from committee. However, as of late last week, it had not been scheduled for Senate floor debate.
___The future looks brighter for the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which

In other legislative news: ___ A bill outlawing "eight-liner" gambling machines in Texas remained on the Senate intent calendar with no sign of movement. Weston Ware, citizenship associate with the Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission, urged concerned Baptists to contact the bill's sponsor, Sen. David Sibley, R-Waco, and four other senators whose votes are crucial: David Cain, D-Dallas; Jeff Went-worth, R-San Antonio; Royce West, D-Dallas; and Drew Nixon, R-Nacogdoches. ___ The Senate approved 23-8 a bill requiring parental notification before an abortion could be performed on a minor child. The measure then moved to the House for consideration.

would require government to show a "compelling interest" such as public health or safety before interfering with religious practices. The government also would have to use the least restrictive means to enforce regulations restricting religious practices.
___More than 120 leaders from every major faith group in Texas have endorsed RFRA, said Phil Strickland, director of the Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission and organizer of the RFRA coalition.
___"There should be and must be a serious reason before government interferes with the bedrock right of religious liberty," Strickland told a March 15 Capitol news conference. "We believe that government should not have unlimited power to make religion dance to its tune."
___ Strickland expressed appreciation to RFRA sponsors, Sen. David Sibley, R-Waco, and Rep. Scott Hochberg, D-Houston. "While both the House and Senate bills have some changes that need to be made, we are very pleased with progress to this point," he said.
___It is urgent for Baptists and other people of faith to call or write their legislators immediately to indicate support for SB138 and HB601, Strickland added. Although the bill has passed the Senate, it has not yet cleared opposition in the House.
___The legislation, which has the backing of Gov. George W. Bush, has been endorsed by organizations ranging across the political spectrum from the conservative Free Market Foun-dation to the liberal Texas Free-dom Network.
___The bill's Senate sponsor noted that broad base of support in floor debate over the measure. Sibley said RFRA garnered that kind of backing because it protects a fundamental right.
___Sibley accepted two amendments to the bill. One created the revokable presumption that the rules and practices regulating inmates in correctional institutions are presumed to further a compelling state interest.
___The other clarified that cities have the same authority to adopt or apply regulations regarding zoning, land use planning or historic preservation as they did prior to 1990. That was when the U.S. Sup-reme Court ruled that the government needed only to demonstrate a reasonable interest, not a compelling interest, before in-tervening in religious practices.
___Meanwhile, on March 24, the Senate Education Commit-tee voted 5-4 to pass on to the full Senate a bill that would give Texas one of the few publicly funded school voucher programs in the nation.
___The vote came after a leng-thy public hearing in which supporters argued that the vou-cher program would give low-income families educational choice and would force public schools to improve.
___Critics of the vouchers for parochial schools, including Strickland, said the plan would siphon money away from the public school system, violate the separation of church and state and strip authentic faith-based schools of their character.
___"If state money goes to church schools, it creates a dilemma. Are we going to let the government give tax funds to the Satanists, the Branch Davidians and other sects and cults that we strongly oppose?" Strickland asked. "Or are we going to hand to the government the right to choose which religions are good and which are bad? Either way, it's a disaster."
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