Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Lawsuit Seeks to Discriminate Against Christian Beliefs in Funding Marriage Education

In another legal challenge to faith-based funding, a secular watchdog group is suing the Bush administration for allegedly bankrolling "Bible-based" marriage counseling.
The lawsuit was filed by a Muslim activist and liberal attorney working for Americans United for Separation of Church and State in Washington, D.C. Ayesha N. Khan is legal director for the nonprofit group.

If successful, the suit could have a chilling effect on faith-based funding.
At stake are more than $750 million in marriage-related education and research grants the federal government plans to spend over the next five years.

The case "has the potential to be quite significant," George Washington University law professor Robert Tuttle said in a recent interview. He is an expert on President Bush's initiative to allocate more federal dollars to faith-based organizations.

Specifically, the potentially landmark suit seeks to block current and future funding for the Northwest Marriage Institute, which allegedly advocates religious beliefs that "derive from a specific form of biblical literalism particular to fundamentalist Christianity," according to pages 14 and 15 of the lawsuit, filed last year in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington state.

Read more at WorldNetDaily.com

Note: The one man, one woman, faithful for life, ideal came from Christianity. In the ancient world polygamy and adultery were well accepted. It was God's Law given through the Bible which greatly elevated marriage.