Via Religion Clause, the Southern Baptist Convention's Southwestern Seminary is sponsoring a new program in Texas prisons that will train inmates to be Christian ministers within the prison system. Officials are assuring that no taxpayer money will support the initiative and that it is completely voluntary, but does this pass church-state tests? The Houston Chronicle reported on Friday:
Organizers describe the program as non-denominational, and there are no requirements to be Baptist or to convert to participate or graduate. But civil liberty groups have raised concerns that it could violate the constitutional separation of church and state.
"On the one hand I think we're very encouraged that they're providing programming for inmates," said Dotty Griffith, public education director for Texas ACLU. "At the same time it does appear to be very sectarian in nature … I think it gives us some concerns about separation issues because it seems to exclude other faiths and it would exclude prisoners who might want to study a different denomination or a different religion altogether."
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"Imagine the public outcry that would arise if the state were to partner with Muslim institutions and train them to be imams and turn them out to minister Islam to other inmates," [AU litigation counsel Alex] Luchenitser said.
Read more about AU's concerns here.
