[Vision2020] States Can Deny Clergy Scholarships

[Tom Hansen]

Greetings Visionaires -

To set the record straight, the following article was copied and pasted from
the digitized version of today's Spokesman review:

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States can deny clergy scholarships
Court rules funding optional

Richard Willing
USA Today

WASHINGTON _ The Supreme Court, further clarifying the division between
church and state, ruled Wednesday that a ministry student is not entitled to
a taxpayer-funded scholarship because it amounts to an unconstitutional
endorsement of religion.

"Training someone to lead a congregation is an essentially religious
endeavor," Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist wrote for the 7-2
majority.

Academic training for "religious professions and training for secular
professions" are not entitled to the same protections, Rehnquist wrote.

Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas dissented.

The decision came in the case of Joshua Davey, a Kirkland, Wash., college
student who sued after being denied a state scholarship to study "devotional
theology" aimed at preparing him for the ministry in the Assemblies of God,
a Protestant denomination. Students who pursued other majors received the
money.

Davey alleged that the denial infringed his right under the Constitution's
First Amendment to freely practice his religion.

Washington state relied on its own constitution, arguing that funding
ministry studies would amount to the endorsement of religion that the
constitution forbids.

The majority opinion said that under the First Amendment, Washington state
could elect to fund Davey's ministerial studies but was not required to do
so.

The case was an example, Rehnquist wrote, of the "play in the joints" of the
First Amendment, which forbids both religious discrimination and the
endorsement of religion.

The decision was a setback for advocates of greater public support for
religious schools and social service programs that have their roots in
churches.

It was also a loss for the Bush administration, which has promoted
"faith-based" social services and had joined the case on Davey's side.

The majority opinion made a distinction between the Davey decision and other
recent rulings by the Supreme Court that permitted parents of public school
children to use taxpayer funds to enroll their children in religious
schools.

Those cases do not involve "religious training," Rehnquist wrote.

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Take care,

Tom Hansen
Not On The Palouse, Not Ever

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"When people sin, everybody has to pay."

- Pastor Douglas Wilson, Christ Church (June 7, 2002)

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