Rob Boston of Americans United has an excellent article on the recent ruling in Iowa against public funding of InnerChange Freedom Initiative, a program of Chuck Colson's Prison Fellowship Ministries. The state of Iowa has funded that program to the tune of $1.5 million over the last few years. There's nothing wrong with having prison ministries, of course, but funding them with public tax money is a problem. An even bigger problem is that the state allowed unequal treatment of those who participated in the program, giving them benefits unavailable to others. Most shocking, Boston reports, is that those who participated in InnerChange were given access to classes that allowed for early parole much sooner than they were available to non-participants. A Federal judge recently declared the program unconstitutional, and rightly so.
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I haven't heard this in the local news at all. That program is shocking and disturbing to me, and that prisoners got special treatment for sucking up to jesus is beyond the pale. It was right to stop publicly funding this, and I hope the preferential treatment stops, too.
Well, the preferential treatment is ok, you see, because right there on teh label, it says 'christian'.
However, allowing gays ther same rights as everyone else to marry whomever they please...that's asking for special treatment that's just above and beyond.
Lucky all of my irony and hypocrisy meters busted a long time ago. Living in KS will have that effect.
Cheers.
Americans United for Separation of Church and State seem to deserve huge kudos for helping maintain that wall. Does their other work live up to this mark?
InnerChange's Field Guide clearly warns that non-Christians and those who desire time to observe faith practices not included in the InnerChange program, e.g., Roman Catholics who wish to attend Mass or Native Americans who wish to participate in the sweat lodge ceremony, may do so only if those observances do not conflict with the InnerChange program requirements."
As an athiest I am leary of any religion making one a better person. This program seems to completly ignore anything but the evangelical faith. This is complete crap. If I was to be looking for faith based influences I would never leap into the litteral bible rabble. This is my first commet to any blog so forgive me if I have rambled.