January 27, 2003
Bush marks Religious Freedom Day; his record criticized
___By Robert Marus
___ABP Washington Bureau
___WASHINGTON (ABP)--President Bush marked national Religious Freedom Day by proclaiming his vision of religious liberty from the White House. Meanwhile, from the steps of the nearby Jefferson Memorial, church-state separationists accused Bush and his ideological allies of endangering that very liberty.
___Religious Freedom Day commemorates adoption of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom on Jan. 16, 1786. The statute, authored by Thomas Jefferson, later became the model for the religious-freedom clauses of the First Amendment.
___"Our founding fathers recognized that religious freedom is a right we must protect with great vigilance," Bush said in a Jan. 16 statement. "We must continue our efforts to uphold justice and tolerance and to oppose prejudice; and we must be resolved to countering any means that infringe on religious freedom."
___But several groups that advocate separation of church and state chided Bush--as well as congressional and judicial leaders--for some of their recent actions. Participating in a joint news conference at the Jefferson Memorial were leaders of the Interfaith Alliance, Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs, American Jewish Committee, National Council of Churches and Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism.
___Interfaith Alliance President Welton Gaddy, a Baptist minister, said Bush and other government leaders are forgetting Jefferson's devotion to religious freedom. "Thomas Jefferson's vision of the necessity of religious liberty is as important today as it was in 1786," Gaddy asserted. "But our national memory is short, and this precious principle is in trouble."
___Gaddy and some other religious leaders say Jefferson's idea of church-state separation--which is not explicitly spelled out in the First Amendment--is necessary to preserve the First Amendment's stated goals. The Supreme Court has tended to agree, although recent decisions have placed that interpretation somewhat in doubt.
___In a Jan. 12 speech commemorating the historic Virginia statute, conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia attacked the court's interpretation of church-state separation, claiming the Constitution's original meaning in creating religious freedom did not create government neutrality toward religion, but rather government equality among all religious faiths.
___For example, Scalia said, government endorsements of "generic" religious sentiment such as the motto "In God We Trust" should be perfectly allowable under the Constitution. He also asserted that if modern courts wanted to ban government endorsement of such generalized religious faith, they should first wait for voters to authorize such an interpretation explicitly.
___Gaddy called that stance outrageous. "Will we now politicize the value that just one year ago, in this very place, President Bush rightfully called 'a cornerstone of our republic, a core principle of our Constitution, a fundamental human right?'" Gaddy asked. "Is Justice Scalia suggesting that we put religion on the ballot of our national elections and determine by a majority vote what religious language should prevail, which name for God should be used in public--if, indeed, any divine name at all?"
___Brent Walker, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee, criticized Bush's recent executive order that enacted certain portions of his "faith-based initiative," which stalled in Congress last year. The initiative expands the ability of governments to give money to churches, mosques and other religious organizations to perform social services.
___"By taking such an aggressive approach, the administration seems to be telling religious organizations to take the money now and worry about the consequences later," Walker said. "This far-reaching action shows a lack of concern for constitutional safeguards that have served us well."
___Besides asserting that government funding always increases the risk of intrusive government regulation, Walker also said governments should not fund faith-intensive programs because of something the Virginia religious-freedom law itself asserted: "That to compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical."
___In his statement, however, Bush said the faith-based initiative would actually expand religious freedom because it ends "discrimination" against heavily religious groups in distribution of government funding.
___"In America today, people of faith continue to wage a determined campaign to meet needs and fight suffering," Bush said. "My administration has been working to ensure that faith-inspired organizations do not face discrimination (in receipt of government funds) simply because of their religious orientation."
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