A constitutional amendment that seems headed for the ballot box in Florida would remove that state's long-standing protection against funding religious organizations with tax dollars. In an op-ed in today's Tallahassee Democrat, Baptist Joint Committee Director Brent Walker explains why providing such aid does religion no favors.
Authentic religion should depend on the persuasive power of the truth it proclaims and not on the coercive power of the state. Using the things of Caesar to finance the things of God is averse to true religion and violates the spirit of freedom on which it is based.
Beyond the unfairness of taxing Floridians to support a religion in which they may or may not believe — a proposition that Thomas Jefferson denounced as "sinful and tyrannical" — religious liberty is even further harmed by government funding because the government always controls what it funds.
