Rabbi wants two amendments removed from the Nov. ballot
June 16, 2008 by libertyisforme
Rabbi Merrill Shapiro of Temple Beth Shalom in Palm Coast, the vice president of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said his organization joined in the lawsuit because it will take tax dollars from Jewish Floridians and use it “to fund institutions that teach that we have no access to salvation, that we’re going to hell.”
Background story:
The amendments were two of the seven placed on the ballot by the commission, which meets once every 20 years. If 60 percent of voters agree, the measures will undo a 2006 state Supreme Court ruling that threw out vouchers as unconstitutional. Vouchers were the brainchild of then-Gov. Jeb Bush, who wanted the state to pay to send students in low-performing public schools to private schools.
But Rabbi doesn’t your organization advocate for religious freedom?
It turns out the Rabbi is preaching the exact opposite of what his organization fights for, religious liberty. In their 990 tax form, I found the following text regarding one of their programs, First Freedom First.
Established in the First Amendment to the US Constitution, religious liberty — the right of individuals to worship or not — was and is defining American values often referred to as the “First Freedom,” this constitutionally guaranteed right is the foundation for the separation of church and state. This separation protects us from undue religious influence in government and undue government intervention in religion and private decisions making.”
It would seem from the statements above, that if parents want to make a private decision to take a scholarship to send their children to a private-religious school they have a constitutional right. It’s their religious liberty!
Currently, public schools prohibit religious freedoms and government intervenes in students religious beliefs and/or practices.
All in all, I don’t share the Rabbi’s view but do agree with the organization’s standpoint of religious liberty.
