Religion Goes Green for Government Money

Wouldn’t it be fabulous if our tax dollars went to pay for new air conditioning units and windows in churches?

No?

Last week, the US House of Representatives passed a measure that will “provide subsidies to ‘faith-based’ organizations and other non-profits to cover of up to 50 percent of the cost of retrofitting their energy systems.” Americans United explains the problem:

Aiding the environment always sounds great, but here’s the problem: the First Amendment prohibits the government from constructing or repairing buildings used for worship. Those funds must come from private donations. It’s not the job of the state to make religious institutions green.

The provision for faith-based institutions was pushed by Diament and a coalition of religious groups that included the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the National Council of Churches and United Jewish Communities, as well as the Rev. Joel Hunter, senior pastor of Florida-based mega-church Northland; the Rev. Jim Ball, head of the Evangelical Environmental Network; and Jim Wallis, head of Sojourners.

Luckily, the Senate version of the climate-change bill makes no mention of similar subsidies for religion. Americans United is supportive of the Senate approach, and here’s hoping that perspective prevails in the long run.

I’m with the AU here. The government should not be taking money out of our pockets and putting it into the hands of churches to get better A/C’s or windows. These organizations have a tremendous amount of money — just consider that to be a member of a church you usually commit to “tithing” at least 10% of your income.

No folks, churches ain’t poor. They don’t need government handouts — let them improve their buildings and purchase more efficient air conditioning themselves.

Religion Goes Green for Government Money
Daniel Florien
Sat, 11 Jul 2009 09:00:23 GMT

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