Next Week: Supreme Court to Consider Case With Major Church-State Separation Implications
While the preschool has an open admissions policy, it functions as a self-described “ministry of Trinity Lutheran Church.” Its “curriculum is Christ-centered.” According to the Center’s website, “[p]rayer is an integral part of each day, as are daily ‘Jesus Time’ classes and weekly chapel times with the pastors.”
According to the center’s parent handbook, children attending the preschool sing for Trinity Lutheran’s Sunday worship services, with one of the teachers leading them. Parents who send their children to the preschool are encouraged “to be faithful in the use of God’s Word and in attendance at services in God’s house.” They are also invited to attend services at Trinity Lutheran. This is because Trinity Lutheran “believe[s] that young children benefit from an environment in which they have significant interaction with Christian adults as role models and helpers in leading a Christian life.”
Plainly, Trinity Lutheran uses its preschool to evangelize, instruct children in the tenets of Christianity and minister to families with young children – all of which are religious activities. The church unquestionably has every right to do all of that; these are rights protected by the First Amendment.
But then there is that matter of state money.
The Missouri Department of Natural Resources turned down Trinity Lutheran’s grant request because awarding the public money to a church would violate the Missouri Constitution, which provides that “no money shall ever be taken from the public treasury, directly or indirectly, in aid of any church, sect, or denomination of religion” and that “[n]either the general assembly, nor any … municipal corporation, shall ever make an appropriation or pay from any public fund whatever, anything … to help to support or sustain any … institution of learning controlled by any religious creed, church or sectarian denomination whatever.”
Angry over the denial of the grant, the church enlisted Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a large Religious Right legal group, to sue on its behalf. Two federal courts ruled against the church, and now the matter is headed to the Supreme Court.
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