Dear Friend,

Halloween weekend is usually the scariest time of year, with miniature ghosts and devils going door to door, threatening tricks if there are no treats. This fall is scarier than usual for advocates of separating government and religion.  At the recent Ohio Republican Senatorial debate, candidate Josh Mandel said, “There’s no such thing as separation of church and state,” and “We should be instilling faith in the classroom, in the workplace, and everywhere in society.” He’s the leading candidate in the most recent polls in a state that has been voting Republican recently. 

In Virginia Vice President Kamala Harris is campaigning by video in hundreds of churches on behalf of candidate for governor Terry McAuliffe, who is appearing in person at churches for brief campaign speeches, as is his opponent Glen Youngkin. This appears to be a blatant violation of the Johnson Amendment which prohibits nonprofits including churches from participating in political activities. To be clear, the churches are legally at fault, not the politicians, but you would like to have candidates for office, or who are already in the White House, leave the campaigning out of churches. The enforcement of the Johnson Amendment by the IRS is nearly nonexistent so both political parties appear comfortable taking advantage of the situation.

Soon the Supreme Court will decide a case about state funding for religious schools that could have significant ramifications beyond this specific issue. Many areas of Maine do not have their own public schools. State law says one option is to “pay the tuition at the public school or the approved private school of the parent’s choice.” To qualify as an “approved private school” the law requires that the private school be “a nonsectarian school in accordance with the First Amendment.” The case comes down to a debate over the “nonsectarian” requirement, and whether the Constitution guarantees families a sectarian—or religious—option. 

So it’s scary out there, but there are some encouraging signs!