Separation of Marriage Education and Religion - 2/6/08

[Smartmarriages]

- WEBINAR PDF NOW AVAILABLE
- COURT DECISION ON SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE AND FEDERAL FUNDING
- AN OBSERVATION 

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- WEBINAR: SEPARATION OF MARRIAGE EDUCATION PROGRAMS AND RELIGION

The information from the 1/23/08 ACF conference call is now available in pdf
format on the healthymarriageinfo.org website. This was the call for Healthy
Marriage and Fatherhood grant recipients to discuss revisions to
policies regarding issues of separation of church and state. In the call,
grantees were advised that there were certain marriage or fatherhood
education programs or parts of programs that they would no longer be able to
use in federally funded projects.  - diane

January 23, 2008: "Ensuring Compliance: How 45 CFR Part 87 Applies to
Curricula Use"
Posted below are links to the supporting documents associated with the
January 23, 2008 National Healthy Marriage Resource Center Technical
Assistance Webinar call on "Ensuring Compliance: How 45 CFR Part 87 Applies
to Curricula Use". Currently available are the following supporting
documents.

Available for download:
*   OFA Curricula Guidance memo (PDF - 24 KB)- this one lists the curricula
<http://www.healthymarriageinfo.org/docs/ofacurriculaguidancememo.pdf>

* Faith Based Legal Safeguards memo (PDF - 36 KB) - ACF guidelines/rules
<http://www.healthymarriageinfo.org/docs/fblegalsafeguards.pdf>

*  45 CFR Part 87 guidance document (PDF - 210 MB) - legal basis background
stuff <http://www.healthymarriageinfo.org/docs/45cfrpart87.pdf>


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- COURT DECISION ON SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE AND FEDERAL FUNDING
 
Dear Diane and Smartmarriage network,
The summary below of the NH court decision regarding programs offered with
federal monies is a pertinent one, especially in light of recent statements.
Kathy Goodrich
kagoodrich at aol.com
--------------------------------
Court Decision Helps Define Religious vs. Secular Programs of Personal
Transformation 
 
American governments cannot legally compel someone to receive
taxpayer-financed religious instruction.
But what elements or activities define a service program as religious? What
distinguishes voluntary choice
of religious social services from government coercion?
 
In Bader v. Wren, the U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire
rejected an Establishment Clause challenge to the "Alternatives to Violence
Program" based in the state's prison. The challenge, brought by a prison
inmate, Mr. Bader, alleged that the program was religious, and that the
state violated the constitution by endorsing the content of the program and
requiring inmates to attend. In rejecting the challenge, the court ruled
that the content of the program was not religious, because individual
participants determine for themselves the source of power that empowers them
to be non-violent. Although the program has Quaker roots, the court found,
the program does not refer to specific religious beliefs or doctrines, and
therefore does not count as religious for Establishment Clause purposes. The
court also ruled that prison officials did not require Bader to attend the
program, but merely recommended that he do so, and he was not penalized for
choosing not to attend. The decision is important because it helps to
distinguish between religious and non-religious programs of personal
transformation, a distinction that has been hard to discern in other
contexts, such as twelve-step treatment programs.
 
Click here to read the court's seven page decision on this case:
http://www.religionandsocialpolicy.org/docs/legal/other/Bader.pdf

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- AN OBSERVATION 

> Dear Diane,
> 
> Regarding the question of the Separation of Church and State and Marriage
> Education.
> 
> It has always struck me that the rules made by the various government agencies
> where they tried to control religious content so as to stop proselytization
> were in fact doing the very thing they were trying to stop.
> 
> Isn¹t trying to reduce or eliminate religious content just as much a religious
> action as any other? Just as atheism is a religious position that requires
> some degree of faith in that it is making a statement of belief, isn¹t taking
> the concept of separation of church and state to these extremes a very
> religious action? Kind of like one group forbidding another person or group
> from saying certain things lest it challenge their orthodoxy.
> 
> Bill

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12th Annual Smart Marriages® Conference, Hilton San Francisco Hotel,
July 2 - 5, 2008  
Pre-Conference Training Institutes June 30-July 2
Post-Conference Training Institutes July 6

List your program and resources on the Directory of Classes at
http://www.smartmarriages.com/directory_browse.html

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http://www.iPlaybackSmartMarriages.com

Coalition for Marriage, Family and Couples Education, LLC (CMFCE)
Diane Sollee, Director
5310 Belt Rd NW, Washington, DC 20015-1961
http://www.smartmarriages.com
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