The Baptist Joint Committee, along with a group of religious and legal organizations, filed an amicus brief with the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in a case challenging Detroit's decision to send taxpayer money to churches, funding beautification efforts ahead of the Super Bowl the city was hosting in 2006.
The lessons of history are compelling: Governmental aid to construct and maintain houses of worship degrades religion and distorts government.
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In permitting cash aid for repairing allegedly secular items, the district court's approach requires government officials to divide churches into secular and religious components. But determining what is religious and what is not in a house of worship requires a deep, sympathetic understanding of the theology of the faith in question.
Even if segregating secular from sacred in a house of worship were possible – and for many faiths it is not – ensuring that public dollars fund only secular components would require highly intrusive monitoring of church functions, a procedure that not only violates the Establishment Clause but also imposes unreasonable, ongoing burdens on public employees and courts. The Founders chose to spare both government and religion the indignity of that arrangement. This Court should respect their choice by reversing the decision below and enforcing settled Establishment Clause precedent.
