UUUGGHHH.
What nonsense. If the original GW was not for it, I dont think it is necessary or even a good thing. Let people be religious on their own damn time.
Maybe it's just me, but I thought the purpose of these programs was to provide federal aid for social services (homeless shelters, drug/alcohol rehab, food banks, battered women's safehouses, etc).
If that's the case, exactly why would you spend millions of dollars to build those, when they already exist in certain cities (just because the existing centers are run by churches).
There in no "separation of church and state" in the US Constitution. Plus, this issue was somewhat addressed in the Cleveland school voucher case that went to the Supreme Court. The public school system there was TERRIBLE. So the city started a voucher system to let parents (especially black parents) pick the school of their choice for their child. Even though the students' performance was improved, certain folk cried about the issue for one reason: Of the 4200+ families who got those vouchers, nearly all of them (96%) used those vouchers to send their kids to Christian schools.
The Supreme Court ruled (5-4) that was no Constitutional breach, because the vouchers were used for a secular purpose, educating the children. The program gave the parents multiple options, regarding where they could send their kids. The fact that the overwhelming number of parents picked religious schools showed no unconstitutionality of the program and was solely due the choice of the parents.
The way I see it, the social services thing is of the same vein. It ain't like the food banks take back the chicken, if you don't confess Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior. Getting saved isn't a requirement to get into rehab. And, nobody is asking battered women if they're born again, prior to entering the facitility.
