A tricky little provision in the newly passed stimulus package marks a serious threat to all religious institutions that use school facilities.  In a provision detailing the use of funds for colleges and universities, the bill states:

PROHIBITED USES OF FUNDS. – No funds awarded under this section may be used for – (C) modernization, renovation, or repair of facilities – (i) used for sectarian instruction, religious worship, or a school or department of divinity; or (ii) in which a substantial portion of the functions of the facilities are subsumed in a religious mission.

Sounds simple enough, right.  They just don’t want the funds to go to religious schools, right?  Well, yea, that and the sneaky little ulterior motive – to remove religion from schools.  The way the provision is stated any building that is renovated with the funds must not be allowed to be used to hold any worship services or religious instruction.  That means that if a school uses the funds to modernize all their meeting rooms, then no rooms would be available for any religious groups to meet.  One can argue that the intention of the bill is not this, but ultimately it will not be the intention of the lawmakers that determines what this provision means, but the interpretation of the courts, which may very likely side with the bill’s wording as an extension of “separation of church and state.”

Right now this will only apply to schools accepting the funds, but once this gets into the court system (and it will), there is a possibility that it could be expanded to all school facilities that receive public funds.

When (and it’s not really a matter of if) this bill is signed into law, the clock really starts ticking for student groups and churches who use public school facilities.  Pray that God will begin working in the hearts of the judges that will hear the (inevitable) cases stemming from this provision to interpret the law with common sense and an understanding of the freedom of religion that is one of the founding tenets of our society.

This is a serious issue and I pray it is not the beginning of a series of troubles for the church in the years to come.