Testimony wraps up in prison ministry lawsuit
http://www.theeagle.com/stories/120305/faith_20051203038.php
Bryan College Station Eagle - TX, United States
DES MOINES, Iowa - Testimony ended this week in a federal lawsuit filed by
an advocacy group claiming a Christian prison ministry program is
unconstitutional and gives preferential treatment to participants.
Americans United for the Separation of Church and State sued the
Christ-centered program at Newton Correctional Facility.
Lawyers defending the state against the lawsuit rested their case Thursday.
Closing arguments are not expected until February.
The InnerChange Freedom Initiative run by Prison Fellowship Ministries is
meant to reduce recidivism. Participants live in a college dorm-like unit
separate from other inmates. They may receive special visits from family
members, access to computers and enrollment in classes required for early
parole.
Inmates who don't subscribe to the program's evangelical teachings are
treated poorly and expelled from the program, Americans United said.
Lawyers for the Reston, Va.,-based Prison Fellowship Ministries denied the
claims. They also say there was no evidence that those who did not
subscribe to its teachings were punished.
Among those testifying were the former director of the Iowa Department of
Corrections, Walter "Kip" Kautzky, who said the program was meant to be a
values-based approach to helping prisoners, not a "praise the Lord"
approach.
Americans United attorney Alex Luchenitser, however, said InnerChange "has
taken over an entire unit of a state prison and turned it into an
evangelical church."
InnerChange also operates in Texas, Kansas and Minnesota.
President Bush has expressed interest in expanding such faith-based
programs in federal prisons.
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Posting and reading from alt.politics.usa.constitution OR alt.education
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 · Hampton Roads [Virginia] SepChurch&State
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HRSepCnS/
[Its not just Hampton Roads folks who are members, there are members from
all over the U.S. and a couple from overseas as well]
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.. . . 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)
.. . .
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THE CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLE:
SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html
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