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Ichabod!

20 August 2004 17:28

ok. so not only has the american jewish congress filed a lawsuit against americorps, but notre dame/ACE is also deeply involved in the lawsuit as a defendant/intervenor.

ajc's case: The American Jewish Congress complaint asserts that "Regargdless of how hours spent engaging in religious instruction are counted for the Corporation's accounting purposes, an AmeriCorps participant who is publicly identified with the AmeriCorps program, who is placed as a teacher in a private sectarian school by a private religious organization, and who receives federal financial assistance for working in that teaching position, is still engaged in religious indoctrination in violation of the First Amendment.

but on the other hand: On February 7, 2003, The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty filed an amicus brief in which it stated that AJC's claims were "based on the extraordinary assertion that a government program fails constitutional scrutiny unless it requres participants to forfeit their constitutionally protected right to engage in certain religious speech activities, on their own time." Such a notion "flies in the face of the Constitution and clearly-established precedent, not only because the Establishment Clause does not mandate it, but also because the Free Exercise Clause expressly forbids it."

so in short, either someone eligible and working towards an americorps grant gives up their freedom of religion or they dont. the sticky part is "on their own time"

to be eligible for the americorps grant, a volunteer must log a certain number of hours. but outside of that specific number of hours, can they teach religion? can they organize masses or prayer services?

having dinner with a family of the community counts towards americorps hours. so even if we subtracted every minute we spent in prayer or teaching religion here, we would still be well over the required number of hours what with all of the community service we do with basketball games, dinners, feasts, fiestas, etc. not to mention the hours of teaching and lesson planning for secular subjects.

if there is an hourly requirement, why cant i have freedom of religion outside of that time? it just seems fundamentally wront to me to take away my freedom of religion while im affiliated with americorps. if someone really wants that grant, can you ask them to give up their religion while they do it? or to put it another way, if school like st francis are to continue to exist, they need americorps teachers. could you ask them to give up their religious affiliation just so they can continue to have teachers and educate students at all? especially at a place called st francis, when education is such a cornerstone of the franciscan way!

it makes me wonder, what did americorps do to the american jewish congress to provoke this? anything beyond its general existence and affiliation with organizations like nd's ACE program?

but anyway. if anybody asks or wants to know, i am not the official religious instructor for seventh grade at saint francis school.