| Topic: |
Sociology > Education |
| User: |
"" |
| Date: |
16 Nov 2007 05:23:00 AM |
| Object: |
Church role in youth therapy is challenged Bismarck Tribune |
[HC had written in another fourn]
[qoute]
FFRF Lawsuit in the News The Bismarck Tribune ran an ambivalent editorial,
"Church role in youth therapy is challenged" (Nov. 11, 2007), about the
Freedom From Religion Foundation's federal challenge of government
sponsorship of a church-run juvenile detention system in North Dakota. The
editorial does concede: "if it coerces minors into faith who are not
voluntary participants, it's in the wrong."
[end quote]
Church role in youth therapy is challenged Bismarck Tribune
Nov 11, 2007
http://www.bismarcktribune.com/articles/2007/11/11/news/opinion/editorials/142506.txt
The name of the organization tells it plainly: Freedom From Religion
Foundation. The Wisconsin-based group wants a U.S. district court to rule
against any public funding of the Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch. The legal
complaint further demands that public agencies not refer troubled young
people to the program as long as religion plays any part in the treatment.
To excise the spiritual component might be intolerable to the groups that
run the program as an expression of their Christian religious faith. They
are units of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America and the Lutheran
Church-Missouri Synod.
The foundation of "freethinkers" - read atheists and agnostics - might have
a good case, but courts are decidedly erratic on church-state matters. It's
alleged that "children are committed to the Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch,
without their consent, by county social service agencies or the
(state)Department of Juvenile Services and/or the (state) Department of
Human Services, and all the children receive religious inculcation,
including those who are committed by public agencies."
The atheist foundation might have its strongest argument on a
constitutional basis if it's true that "children are disciplined for
refusing to participate in the spiritual aspects of their therapeutic
treatment plan, including suspension of privileges; prolongation of
commitment (to the program). ... Refusal to participate in religious
activities is considered nonparticipation in a child's treatment plan."
It should be questioned whether the named plaintiffs, including five
individual North Dakota residents, have the best interests at heart of
youths who have emotional problems or have delinquency or substance
addictions. Perhaps, it's more a matter of the Freedom From Religion
Foundation's 33-year history of combatting, mainly in court, the role of
religion in public life. It's won some, lost some cases. One of its signal
losses was a challenge to the Bush administration's funding of work done by
faith-based organizations. The foundation lost Hein v. Freedom From
Religion Foundation in the Supreme Court.
The Boys and Girls Ranch asserts that no one getting treatment is coerced
into Christian faith activities, that provision is made for residents to
engage in non-Christian spiritual activities off premises. It also contends
that it keeps separate accounting of private funds used for spiritual
activities and the state money used for treatment.
The parties bringing the complaint don't attack the effectiveness of the
therapeutic program. That's smart, because the latest recertification by
the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities is lavish with
praise. The most bothersome aspect of the lawsuit is that its goal is
entirely negative, to get practices to stop. The foundation proposes
nothing positive in place of the way Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch is run.
The legal case illustrates a deep division in American society that has
existed for more than two centuries.
People of equally good character can differ radically on whether a freedom
from religion philosophy that nearly deifies an extra-constitutional
concept, separation of church and state, can coexist respectfully with a
right to freedom of religion.
The ranch program does good things. But if it coerces minors into faith who
are not voluntary participants, it's in the wrong.
***************************************************************
You are invited to check out the following:
The Rise of the Theocratic States of America
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/theocracy.htm
American Theocrats - Past and Present
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/theocrats.htm
The Constitutional Principle: Separation of Church and State
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html
[and to join the discussion group for the above site and/or Separation of
Church and State in general, listed below]
HRSepCnS · Historical Reality SepChurch&State
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HRSepCnS/
***************************************************************
.. . . You can't understand a phrase such as "Congress shall make no law
respecting an establishment of religion" by syllogistic reasoning. Words
take their meaning from social as well as textual contexts, which is why "a
page of history is worth a volume of logic." New York Trust Co. v. Eisner,
256 U.S. 345, 349, 41 S.Ct. 506, 507, 65 L.Ed. 963 (1921) (Holmes, J.).
Sherman v. Community Consol. Dist. 21, 980 F.2d 437, 445 (7th Cir. 1992)
.. . .
****************************************************************
USAF LT. COL (Ret) Buffman (Glen P. Goffin) wrote
"You pilot always into an unknown future;
facts are your only clue. Get the facts!"
That philosophy 'snipit' helped to get me, and my crew, through a good
many combat missions and far too many scary, inflight, emergencies.
It has also played a significant role in helping me to expose the
plethora of radical Christian propaganda and lies that we find at
almost every media turn.
*****************************************************************
THE CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLE:
SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html
****************************************************************
.
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| User: "Geode" |
|
| Title: Re: Church role in youth therapy is challenged Bismarck Tribune |
19 Nov 2007 01:39:34 PM |
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On 16 nov, 11:23, wrote:
[HC had written in another fourn]
[qoute]
FFRF Lawsuit in the News The Bismarck Tribune ran an ambivalent editorial,
"Church role in youth therapy is challenged" (Nov. 11, 2007), about the
Freedom From Religion Foundation's federal challenge of government
sponsorship of a church-run juvenile detention system in North Dakota. The
editorial does concede: "if it coerces minors into faith who are not
voluntary participants, it's in the wrong."
[end quote]
Church role in youth therapy is challenged Bismarck Tribune
Nov 11, 2007
http://www.bismarcktribune.com/articles/2007/11/11/news/opinion/edito...
The name of the organization tells it plainly: Freedom From Religion
Foundation. The Wisconsin-based group wants a U.S. district court to rule
against any public funding of the Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch. The legal
complaint further demands that public agencies not refer troubled young
people to the program as long as religion plays any part in the treatment.
To excise the spiritual component might be intolerable to the groups that
run the program as an expression of their Christian religious faith. They
are units of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America and the Lutheran
Church-Missouri Synod.
The foundation of "freethinkers" - read atheists and agnostics - might have
a good case, but courts are decidedly erratic on church-state matters. It's
alleged that "children are committed to the Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch,
without their consent, by county social service agencies or the
(state)Department of Juvenile Services and/or the (state) Department of
Human Services, and all the children receive religious inculcation,
including those who are committed by public agencies."
I think is a good idea to send these kids to such a place. They will
torturing these boys in a manner that the said place will be the best
seminary to produce the Atheists of the future.
I have been raised in a Catholic School orphanage since year 8, then
at 12 I was already a convinced atheist. And this was all due to
their influence, for we have not in those times, neither papers,
megazines, radios, or TV programes to disbelieve on god.
My case was not an isolated one, every kid that was raised there were
cursing the nuns, priests, and in general god and all its
saints.
So, it will be good thing to let religious bigots to alienate those
kids with their best intentions.
Sorry for the poor kids. They do not deserve such mistreatment. I
recant at this post. It was meant to be a sort of cursing act.
Leopoldo
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