Reply #5: 'So long religious freedom. Hello state-sponsored religious coercion.'

[seafan]

From the South Florida Sun-Sentinel:

Florida tax commission goes astray with ax to church-state wall

Michael Mayo | News Columnist
March 30, 2008

.....

What the heck is a taxation council doing wading into a constitutional wedge issue like this?" said House Democratic leader Dan Gelber of Miami Beach, who sits on the commission but doesn't get to vote.

Maybe it's time the commission, which meets every 20 years, goes back into hibernation.

This latest proposed amendment veered off the tax path into the hot-button realm of conservative ideology.

Call it the Revenge of Jeb, because the amendment was proposed by a close associate of former Gov. Jeb Bush, Patricia Levesque, and could mean the revival of a private school voucher program Bush championed. The Florida Supreme Court struck down the vouchers that could be used at religious-based schools.

Call it a solution in search of a problem, because nobody raised the issue in statewide public hearings last year. "It never came up in public testimony," said Jim Scott of Fort Lauderdale, the commission vice chairman and a former Republican senate president who voted against the proposed amendment.

And call it a bad idea, because the proposal is sure to trigger confusion and controversy and siphon attention from other amendments that actually relate to tax policy.

.....

It's not the prospect of religious institutions getting state money that bothers me so much as those institutions placing religious demands on people getting state aid.
A few years ago, I went to a church in Belle Glade that distributed food donated by a nonprofit organization. There were supposed to be no restrictions on the distribution. But the church made recipients attend services before getting a hot meal and a box to take home.

If this amendment passes, that could be the wave of the future. So long religious freedom. Hello state-sponsored religious coercion.

This is reminiscent of the military chaplain who demanded that troops be baptized into the Christian faith before they would be allowed water in which to to bathe:


8 April 2003

Reports that a US Army Chaplain is providing Army troops with bathing water only if they consent to Christian baptism and preaching should be investigated immediately by military authorities, an Atheist civil rights group said today.

Published news reports coming from the Knight Ridder agency identify the chaplain as Josh Ilano of Houston who sees the shortage of water on the front lines as "an opportunity." Ilano identifies himself as a "Southern Baptist evangelist." Soldiers "have to go to one of Llano's hour-and-a-half sermons in his dirt-floor tent," submit to Baptism and only then are given water. "It's simple," Llano is quoted in a KR story. "They want water. I have it, as long as they agree to get baptized."

"This is absolutely outrageous," said Kathleen Johnson, Military Director of American Atheists. "This is totally inappropriate and unconstitutional behavior by an officer in the military. He is exploiting the harsh conditions our troops in Iraq are encountering in order to further a sectarian religious agenda." Johnson said that military chaplains are "embedded" with troops to minister to those who might voluntarily seek out counseling or an opportunity to practice their faith. "This guy is trying to 'lure' potential converts, and he is preying on vulnerable, stressed-out military men and women who are risking their lives in combat. The military should investigate Llano's coercive and even possibly illegal activities. Pastor Llano should share water and other resources with ALL needy troops." "He's using government resources to advance his particular religious agenda, and doesn't seem to realize that there are plenty of soldiers who do not agree with his particular creed, or in any creed at all," said Ms. Johnson.

link (scroll down a quarter page)



Jeb Bush's Revenge. A very apt name.