A Christian evangelical fellowship that has helped underprivileged children for decades has been prohibited from hosting their typical religious-themed summer programs to reduce incidents of drug use and crime -- possibly a violation of a Supreme Court ruling allowing such use of public institutions.
-- From "Evangelical Group Banned From Tulsa Housing Projects, Chapter Leader Says" by James Osborne, FOX News 6/8/09
For more than 70 years, the Missouri-based Child Evangelism Fellowship has worked with underprivileged kids, not only to convert them to Christianity, but to improve their lives through education and after-school activities. In one program, fellowship missionaries visit prisons and sign up inmates' children for Bible study programs in an effort to keep them from winding up in jail themselves.
But recently, the fellowship was told that it was in violation of a long-standing policy prohibiting religious instruction on public housing property, said Larry Koehn, who heads the organization's chapter in the city.
Koehn said he was informed of the decision by Youth at Heart, a non-profit company that administers recreational programs for the Tulsa Housing Authority. A company representative said she had been told to refer all calls about the evangelical group to the housing authority.
To read the entire article, CLICK HERE.
