Yesterday I caught wind of a news story which made me cringe. In Bay Minette Ala. There is a new program for Non-violent, first offenders that gives them the choice between time in jail, and a year of church attendance. The justification they proposed was just as ridiculous, they decided that sending first offenders to church would give them the moral outline that they seemed to be missing. As if the only place to get your morality was in church. Not only is that completely incorrect, but it clearly violates the first amendment. By giving them the choice between a correctional facility and a church places them on equal ground and gives the impression that the state endorses church attendance.
The defense provided to this criticism was that it was completely up to the offender which choice they went with. REALLY?!! Olivia Turner of the ACLU puts it simply, “There isn’t a real choice here,” she said. “This policy completely entangles government with religion, and is an abuse of power because it coerces people into religious exercise.”
It's not a real choice, I as an atheist would choose to go to church, because if I do they will DISMISS my case. There should be, in my opinion, a third choice. That is a secular program including counseling, and other support.
In short, we don't need fairy tales to fix people. Religion does not provide morals, they are a product of our social nature as a species. The main point though is that it is a violation of church state separation.
IT NEEDS TO END.
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