Theocracy Alert

Texas GOP Embraces Theocracy

The Texas Republican convention in early June--which included a Saturday morning prayer meeting--attracted 4,500 faithful delegates, who adopted a platform declaring that "America is a Christian nation" and affirmed that "God is undeniable in our history and is vital to our freedom."

Party leader Tina Benkiser told the faithful that "He [God] is the chairman of this party," according to Dallas Morning News (June 4, 2006).

$50 Million to Faith Groups

The Bush Administration in May announced more than $50 million in grant opportunities for faith-based and community groups through its Compassion Capital Fund. Funding averaging $50,000 is available through the "Targeted Capacity Building Fund" for up to 300 grants. The "Empowering Youth Program" will make up to 100 awards averaging $30,000. A demonstration program will give $500,000 each to ten grantees working as intermediary organizations. Those grants will assist and train faith-based and community groups.

The Compassion Capital Fund, created in 2002, initially was funded with $30 million by Congress. More than $148 million had been given to more than 3,000 faith-based and community groups as of last September, according to the Roundtable on Religion and Social Welfare Policy.

$135 Million in "Healthy Marriage" Grants

More than $135 million is available from seven grant programs related to the "Healthy Marriage Initiatives," according to the federal government, in a May announcement posting summer deadlines. Congress, which approved $100 million this year for the "Healthy Marriage Initiative," allocated $25 million of that to provide assistance to grantees. A $32 million fund to promote responsible fatherhood is offering 89 grants ranging from $250,000 to $1 million a year. Temporary Assistance for Needy Family money is being used for a program critics consider propagandistic, sexist, intrusive and aimed at funneling money to the religious right.

Blackwell Wins Ohio Primary

Ohio's controversial Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell won a May primary for the Republican nomination for governor. Blackwell, co-chair of Bush's Ohio reelection committee, is involved in the controversy over inadequate voting machines during the last presidential election in Ohio. The darling of Ohio's religious right, his candidacy has been openly trumpeted by two "pastor patriot" groups. The pastor groups' political tactics have been brought to the attention of the IRS by liberal clergy to no avail.

Gay Marriage Vote Not Over

In a June 7 procedural vote in the U.S. Senate, a measure to amend the Constitution to ban gay marriage fell 11 votes short of the necessary 60. The vote was engineered to appease the religious right and be used in election ads against liberals. The Vatican weighed in, calling gay marriage one of the factors most threatening to the traditional family. Democrats en bloc opposed the amendment, with the exception of Sen. Ben Nelson, Neb.

Fundamentalist Protestant and Catholic lobbies and their Senate lackies promised to bring the amendment up for a revote.

Already, 45 of 50 states ban same-sex marriage by definition, 19 through constitutional amendments and 26 through statutes.

Pres. Bush supported the constitutional amendment in an address to the National Association of Evangelicals via satellite two days prior to the vote. He praised the evangelist group for proclaiming "the Kingdom of God" and "doing God's work."

Maryland Aid to Baptist Convention

A grant of $150,000 for a Baptist conference in Maryland through Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s supplemental budget was deemed constitutional in May by the state attorney general. State money will be used for the National Baptist Congress of Christian Education for its annual convention in Baltimore. The conference purpose, according to an address on the Baptist website by president R.B. Holmes Jr., is to let delegates "network with thousands of other Christian workers, and return home better prepared, more inspired, and truly revived for ministry." The conference includes seminars on topics such as "Christianity vs. Islam, Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons," a workshop which examines "the challenge to the Baptist faith of cults [and how to] defeat their causes."

Americans United for Separation of Church and State in June asked a federal judge to stop the city of Maryland from giving an additional $297,500 to the convention.

"In God We Trust" Upheld

Michael Newdow's latest federal lawsuit, challenging "In God We Trust" as the national motto and its inscription on coins and currency, was thrown out by a Sacramento federal judge on June 12.

U.S. District Judge Frank C. Damrell Jr. cited a 1970 federal appellate court ruling that the motto "has nothing whatsoever to do with the establishment of religion."

Newdow said he is optimistic about his chances on appeal to the 9th Circuit.

S.C. Passes Religion Law

South Carolina passed a law in June to let school districts grant credit for off-campus religious courses taken during "release time." Students can earn up to two elective credits for bible studies.

Ohio Vouchers Abused

Some parents with kids in private schools are fraudulently enrolling their children in struggling public schools in hopes of qualifying for state money to pay religious-school tuition.

The Columbus Dispatchrecently reported that the Ohio Department of Education is seeking legal advice about the strategy. The voucher program is designed to help the neediest students in troubled public schools transfer to private schools. The law does not prescribe how long a student needs to attend a "troubled school" before seeking to opt out at taxpayer expense. Scholarships amount to about $4,250 for grammar school students and $5,000 for high school students.