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Article: State-supported religion.(Letter to the editor)
- Article from:
- The Christian Century
- Article date:
- April 4, 2006
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 The Christian Century Foundation. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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IN "JUDGING ALITO" (Jan. 10), my friend Melissa Rogers argues persuasively against government sponsoring prayers or symbolic displays that favor a religious view and thus, she points out, violate the principle of state neutrality toward religion. But that same principle undercuts her subsequent argument against allowing government aid for education or social services to go equally to religious providers.
When government supports K-12 schooling or mental-health therapy provided from a secular viewpoint, but denies aid for the same valuable service from a religious viewpoint, it is strange indeed to call the posture "neutral." Rather, the government's selective ...