State/Church Bulletin

McManus Feeds at Public Trough

Among the three columnists who have been exposed, to date, for secretly and unethically taking federal money to promote Administrative policies is religious columnist Mike McManus.

McManus' religious group, Marriage Savers, got $10,200 from the Department of Health and Human Services to promote Bush's "Healthy Marriage Initiatives" through McManus' column. Ironically, his column, syndicated in about 50 papers, is called "Ethics & Religion."

Marriage Savers openly promotes use of federal funds designated to help the poor to promote its religious ideas about marriage. Marriage Savers has also received (at minimum) $49,000 from a group funded by HHS to promote marriage to unwed couples having children. HHS assistant secretary Wade Horn, who managed McManus' contract, is a former member of the Marriage Savers' board of directors.

"I was hired because we have an expertise in working with churches," McManus told USA Today.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation won a federal lawsuit in Wisconsin in its "Marriage Savers" 2000 case, successfully challenging a budget item McManus had lobbied the state to adopt, to promote his religious standards to church pastors.

Also receiving a federal contract was syndicated columnist Maggie Gallagher, who got $21,500 from HHS to promote the president's $300 million initiative to encourage marriage. Gallagher received another $20,000 from the Justice Department to write a report for the National Fatherhood Initiative, which appeared under the byline of Wade Horn, in Crisis (Catholic) magazine.

In January it was also disclosed that rightwing radio commentator Armstrong Williams got $241,000 through the Education Department to promote the No Child Left Behind law through his cable TV and syndicated radio shows.

Federal law bans the use of public money on propaganda.

Arizona Gov Backs Decalog

Arizona's Democratic governor, Janet Napolitano, and 38 legislators signed onto a "friend of the court" brief filed by the arch-right Center for Arizona Policy to promote the Ten Commandments on Capitol grounds.

The brief goes before the U.S. Supreme Court in a case challenging a Ten Commandments monument on Capitol grounds in Texas. Napolitano and the Arizona Legislature are on record endorsing the continuing presence of a similar Old Testament marker on Wesley Bolin Plaza, near the Capitol in Phoenix.

The Center for Arizona Policy, on its website, says: "We battle organizations like Planned Parenthood, the ACLU and gay rights groups that seek to destroy traditional families and traditional moral values. . . . CAP has been selected and endorsed by Dr. Dobson and Focus on the Family to be the Family Policy Council for Arizona."

To complain about this unsavory union between government and a religious-right organization, and why it is inappropriate for the Ten Commandments to be endorsed by our secular government, write:

The Honorable Janet Napolitano
Governor of Arizona
1700 West Washington
Phoenix, Arizona 85007
Telephone 602/542-4331
Fax 602/542-1381

Ten Commandments Must Go

A federal judge on Jan. 31 ordered that a Ten Commandments monument must be moved from the Gibson County Courthouse, Ind., within 60 days.

The marker was erected on the courthouse lawn in 1956.

The Ten Commandments "cannot be reasonably stripped of their sacred religious significance by a characterization of them as a moral or ethical code . . . Our forefathers strived to craft a Constitution and Bill of Rights which took into account the need for government to be 'of all the people' no matter what religious beliefs they hold or choose not to hold."

Atheist Foils Theocrat Scheme?

A Colorado atheist is trying to block a religionist's scheme to buy a small plot of county courthouse lawn in Crawfordsville, Ind., in order to return a Ten Commandments monument to the spot.

Earl Myler recently proposed that Montgomery County commissioners sell him some county property so he can return a religious monument to the spot where it had been removed as a state/church violation in 2001.

Ken Lewis of Colorado contacted the commissioners, pledging to outbid Myler if the commissioners put the land up for sale. Lewis proposed erecting a monument reading "Freedom From Religion."

Commissioners agreed to defer any decision to sell a 6-foot by 5-foot portion of courthouse lawn until the U.S. Supreme Court rules this spring on two Ten Commandments cases.

Scalia Spouts Off, Again

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, in a speech on Jan. 25 at the University of Michigan, said "tradition and historical practice" are what courts should use in deciding religious cases, not Supreme Court tests on constitutionality.

His appearance was sponsored by Ave Maria School of Law, funded by Roman Catholic Domino's Pizza magnate Thomas Monaghan. Scalia, a Roman Catholic, has nine children, and gave advice on teaching children "to survive" in our secular society.

Scalia criss-crossed the country in recent months addressing religious groups, giving advice such as "Be fools for Christ." Michael Newdow, challenger of the religious Pledge of Allegiance, successfully requested that Scalia recuse himself from the pledge case, citing Scalia's prejudicial remarks about the pledge before a Roman Catholic Knights of Columbus audience.

Scandal Plagues Church-linked OIC

The Opportunities Industrialization Center of Greater Milwaukee, which received $230 million in state contracts since 1997 to administer welfare for the state of Wisconsin, went of business in February.

Scandals included a criminal kickback scheme in 2003 linking the firm to former State Sen. Gary R. George, who is serving a 4-year prison term for illegally receiving about $500,000 from OIC. The state is taking legal action to recoup $2.2 million it says OIC owes it upfront. Facing federal charges is OIC chief financial officer Cordelia Ekwueme, for misusing $45,000.

OIC was founded by Rev. Leon Sullivan in 1967. OIC was affiliated with Opportunities Redevelopment Corp. A scheme to sell a new $5.8 million prison to ORC at half cost, and to have two churches linked to OIC and ORC run the prison, was foiled.

"Choose Life" Not Chosen

The U.S. Supreme Court in January let stand a ruling by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, finding that South Carolina's antiabortion license plates are unconstitutional.

The program, which began in 2001, let South Carolina drivers pay $70 to purchase antiabortion plates. The revenue went toward antiabortion "crisis pregnancy" programs. Pro-choice specialty plates were not offered. The winning case was brought by Planned Parenthood of South Carolina, which charged "viewpoint discrimination."

Eleven other states, at the behest of religious-right lobbies, offer "Choose Life" plates.

Godly License Plate Proposed

Two Republican legislators in Ohio introduced bills to create a license plate saying "One Nation Under God," at the suggestion of Moms for Ohio PAC, which said it wants to support the reference to God in the Pledge of Allegiance.

NY Judge OK's Same-Sex Marriage

State Supreme Court Justice Doris Ling-Cohan ruled on Feb. 4 that the New York State ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional. She said a New York City clerk was wrong to deny a license solely because a couple was the same sex. Mayor Michael Bloomberg is appealing the ruling.

Public Libraries to Promote God?

The Republican party chairman in Pasco County, Fla., is pressing county commission members to hang banners saying "In God We Trust" throughout the county library system. Said Bill Bunting: "This country was founded on Judeo-Christian values." The county is seeking legal advice.

Pope Satirist Fined

One of Poland's best-known newspaper editors, Jerzy Urban, was fined $6,500 for "ridiculing" Pope John Paul II by a Warsaw court in late January.

Urban, 71, was found guilty of insulting a head of state for a satirical article, "Walking Sadomasochism," written when the pope visited Poland in 2002, describing him as "the Brezhnev of the Vatican" and an "impotent old man.

Reporters Without Borders decried the prosecution for setting a "dangerous precedent" for the European Union.

GOP Woos Black Ministers

More than 100 African American ministers gatherd at a summit on Feb. 1 at Crenshaw Christian Center, one of Los Angeles' largest black churches, to build support for banning same-sex marriage.

A "Black Contract with America on Moral Values" was unveiled, calling for bible-based action by government and churches working togehter.Another group run by Bishop Harry R. Jackson Jr., with ties to Newt Gingrich, former House Speaker, is announcing a similar "Mayflower Compact for Black America" to organize key states for the 2006 and 2008 elections. The contract calls for banning gay marriage, "privatizing" Social Security, promoting school values (parochial aid), and religious "prison reform."

The Heritage Foundation hosted a gathering of black conservatives in Washington in February to fight the "American-hating black liberal leadership." All events are supported by the Republican Party and their allies, according to The Los Angeles Times (Feb. 1, 2005).

In late January, Pres. Bush met with about two dozen black religious leaders at the White House to discuss "moral issues," where they were urged to support Bush's plan to end Social Security. Among those present: Rev. Eugene F. Rivers of Boston, an early recipient of "faith-based" funding.