The separation of church and state never has been anywhere near as complete as many people today claim. The “wall” that so many like to talk about was Jefferson’s private opinion. Among the first acts of the first session of Congress was to appoint Congressional (Christian) chaplains, and also to provide for military chaplains.
For that matter, even Jefferson was not as extreme on the issue as practically everybody thinks.
I would imagine that is already the case.
Sure, but there are ways around it. Are you aware that your tax dollars are used to fund the FLDS (the fundamentalist sect of the Mormon church). Men take multiple wives, sometimes dozens, but since bigamy is against the law, they don’t actually legally marry them. So when these women have 10 or 20 children, the women, who are legally single mothers, can (and do) claim government assistance to raise them. The largest part of that money goes directly to the father, who kicks up to the reigning “prophet” who is in charge of the church. This amounts to many millions of dollars a year out of our tax dollars. It’s a loophole in the law that nobody has been willing or able to close.
I’m pretty sure there will be plenty of Islamic schools taking advantage of this. I’m also pretty sure that this will be enough to generate right-wing outrage like we’ve never seen before, and that they simply will not understand the actual point they’re making.
There have been a couple of raids, closing down a compound or two.
The underage sex and incest is the worst part of it.
Maine is more rural than any of a half-dozen of the rectangles on the Westerm US map that get one electoral vote each for tumbleweeds, cows, and people?
Unfortunately, they’re all over the place. LDS is the fastest growing religion on the planet, and the FLDS and other offshoot sects are like Whack-a-Mole. The birth rate in Utah County alone is the highest in the US, and higher than in some 3rd world countries.
I agree about the rape and incest. It’s shocking, to say the least. But that’s for a different thread.
I can’t even begin to think of how the law could prevent this as a loophole in the separation of church and state, since no official religious precept is involved. You and I could do the same thing no matter how staunch atheists we were.
Those big rectangle states are mostly wilderness, not rural.
Yes, exactly. Cults like this are a plague on society, but I don’t see any cure for this particular “problem”. We’re only going to give welfare payments to people who follow an approved religion and live in a government-approved family structure? Sounds like a major nonstarter.
If they have to do all the work, I agree. It’s not that they’re a troll religion per se, but this would be a huge money sink to try and pull it off, when they have so much more they could be working on.
That said, if the situation was that some other school was having trouble being built, and making it a religious school would help, then I could see them partnering with said school, making it officially a Satanic Temple school.
I just don’t think that would be necessary with this ruling. Any secular school could come in. And if they want to thumb their nose, they could have a comparative religion class.
Strict enforcement of child sex and incest laws. Particularly the first. DNA tests on underage moms to find out who the father is, then put that scum in prison for a long time.
Those things are already illegal and have nothing to do with religion.
It’s especially amusing if you’re aware of one of the earliest SoCaS cases, decided in a state (that I can never remember**) Supreme Court was between Catholics and Protestants over which version of the Bible would be used in public schools.
**Found it,
State ex rel Weiss v. District Board 76, Wisconsin 177 (1890), 3, otherwise known as the Edgerton Bible Case.
I’m surprised it took that long to show up on the Supreme Court docket. People were killing each other over that topic in the 1840s and 1850s. The feud actually led to the creation of Catholic School systems.
Yeah, long time no read.
Thank you.
I’m still here. I am just less chatty. (I am recovering from having been a Moderator.)
The little shield says you still are.
It seems like Maine already has non-discriminatory language on the books:
That’s because religious or not, private schools in Maine must adhere to dozens of rules before being deemed eligible by the state Department of Education to participate in the Maine program. They also have to comply with the Maine Human Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination based on race, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity or disability and applies to all private schools that decide to accept public money.
Schools that do not accept LGBTQ teachers, students or students with LGBTQ parents would not be able to participate in the program and benefit from state-funded tuition stipends.
From here. So, how many religious schools could even pass muster?