Written by Don Byrd
Reverend Welton Gaddy, Director of the Interfaith Alliance and Pastor at Northminster Baptist Church in Monroe, Louisiana, has written an open letter to Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, arguing that the state’s school voucher program threatens religious freedom by using taxpayer dollars to teach theology.
Let me be clear: I am not appalled that a Christian school is teaching its students that God created the Earth. Children in my church learn that every Sunday. I am appalled that these schools are teaching theology as science; and they’re doing so with government money, my tax dollars. Teaching the theology of Creationism is part of the mission of religious schools, and religious education more broadly—I defend with my life’s work their right to teach future generations about their faith. But they should not receive financial support from our government to do so.
Jindal’s program is now among the largest in the nation. Studies have shown the vouchers are sending public money almost exclusively to religious schools. As one state legislator and voucher supporter learned to her dismay, non-Christian schools qualify for those taxpayer funds too!
As Gaddy says, school vouchers are bad for education, bad for religion, and bad for liberty. Read the whole thing.
