Public funding of religious schools, centers suggested

It sounds as appealing as apple pie: ensuring religious freedom.

In reality, a proposed amendment to the Florida Constitution facing the state's voters is a much more complicated, and combustible, combination of religion and politics.

Already, activists across the political spectrum are forming political action committees, holding news conferences and setting up websites as they mobilize for battle between now and November.

The focus of their attention is proposed Amendment 8, which would rewrite the "religious freedom" section of the state Constitution. It would remove the long-standing ban on taxpayer funding of churches, synagogues, mosques and other religious institutions and replace it with completely opposite language prohibiting state or local governments from withholding money based on religious belief.

It's a simple and necessary change, in the view of former state Rep. Juan Zapata, R-Miami, president of the newly formed Citizens for Religious Freedom and Non-Discrimination, which launched a "Yes on 8" campaign early this month, and Archbishop Thomas Wenski, spiritual leader of 1.3 million Roman Catholics in South Florida.

"The [current] language is now obsolete," Zapata said. "The amendment basically removes some language that we feel is kind of discriminatory in nature from the Florida Constitution."

'Misleading, dangerous'

It's misleadingly vague and dangerous, said David Barkey, the Boca Raton-based national religious freedom counsel for the Anti-Defamation League, which works to combat anti-Semitism, and Maggie Garrett, legislative director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

"It's stripping out all of the church-state protections and religious freedom protections that are currently in the Florida Constitution," Garrett said.

One thing that's clear, said Charles Zelden, a professor of history and legal studies who specializes in politics and voting at Nova Southeastern University, is that the impact of the proposed constitutional change isn't easy for most voters to decipher. "Unless someone explains it to you, it just doesn't mean what it seems to mean," he said.

Currently, houses of worship can't receive taxpayer money, Barkey said, though organizations like Catholic Charities, Lutheran Social Services and Jewish federations can for programs that serve a secular, public purpose.

"As a Florida taxpayer, you aren't required to fund houses of worship that you're not affiliated with or that you don't agree with," he said. "I think it's a good protection against religious division in our state. It minimizes the issue of government picking winners and losers among religious groups."

Religion police?

Under Amendment 8, he said, government money could end up going to churches with controversial positions for and against Islam and for and against homosexuality. And it would be impossible to ensure that taxpayer money isn't used to support proselytizing. "Once you give the money, how are you going to check? Are you going to send in the religious police?" he said.

Zapata said those warnings are red herrings designed to scare people into voting against the proposal.

He said it's needed to make sure no one uses the existing constitutional language to attempt to cut off funding for organizations such as Catholic Charities and Jewish federations' social services. "We feel very strongly these entities that are providing social services to folks shouldn't be in jeopardy of losing their funding because they're affiliated with religious groups," he said. "The risk is there, it's real."

Wenski said Amendment 8 would correct a stain on American history. He said the "unfortunate presence" of the language in Florida's Constitution stems from a period of rampant anti-Catholicism in the late 1800s. A failed attempt to add the so-called Blaine Amendment that would have inserted a ban on aid to religious schools into the U.S. Constitution was used as a model by many states.

But Garrett said it's misleading and oversimplified to view Florida's constitutional language - which is shared by 37 other states - as rooted in anti-Catholic sentiment. And, she said, it's been examined and retained when Florida has reviewed its constitution in recent years.

Garrett and other opponents such as the Florida Education Association teachers union warn Amendment 8 could make it easier to provide government subsides for religious schools through vouchers. Zapata and Wenski said that's not their intention - and that it wouldn't happen because a separate part of the Constitution would make it difficult.