Posted on 06/28/2013 12:29:55 PM PDT by Impala64ssa
A Louisiana sheriff is standing firm on not accepting Department of Justice funds for the Young Marines program after he was told he couldn’t mention God if he wanted the funding. Bossier Parrish Sherriff Julian Whittington said the demand infringes on his religious freedoms.
Whittington said he was appalled at the funding condition, spelled out in a letter from the Justice Department saying any mention of “God” or any “voluntary prayers” could not be included in the program if it was to receive the $30,000 in funding.
“Last time I said the Pledge of Allegiance, it had God in it,” Whittington told KTBS, a local TV station. “The last time I picked up a dollar bill this morning, it had God on it. You mean to tell me that we can’t have voluntary prayer or mention God in our program?”
Fox News reported that the Justice Department took issue with the Young Marine’s Oath, which says:
“From this day forward, I sincerely promise, I will set an example for all other youth to follow and I shall never do anything that would bring disgrace or dishonor upon God, my Country and its flag, my parents, myself or the Young Marines. These I will honor and respect in a manner that will reflect credit upon them and myself. Semper Fidelis.”
Local clergy members are standing behind Whittington.
“We want to make sure that program stays in place and I want to applaud the sheriff for taking a stand the way he did to not compromise the integrity of the program for a few grant dollars,” Pastor Doyle Adams Sr. of Elizabeth Baptist Church told KTBS.
Whittington said it’s not about the money, but the principle. The character-building program has been in place since 2002 and has been sanctioned by the U.S. Marine Corps. Young men and women between the ages of 8 and 18 are taught discipline, leadership, teamwork and commitment.
Local supporters have come forward, Whittington said, and the program is ready for a group of new recruits starting this week.
SCOTUS has ruled this to be unconstitutional.
The attempt to make religious faith a target for contempt, ridicule and isolation is beginning to show up more and more as the government makes the slightest mention of ‘God’ a reason to withhold funds from a perfectly legitimate and worthy program for young people. The sheriff is to be commended. We have to push back on this nonsense.
I think funding to most all programs should be cut.
More of Obama’s minions doing the work that he doesn’t have to do...to, “Fundamentally Change America”. Madame Guillotine, oil up your slide.
"What difference does it make?"
Well, My FRiend, stuff like this is what the majority of voters said, via their votes, they wanted way back in 2008. In 2012, they had a chance to change it,instead they re-affirmed it. One can accept it. deny it, or make excuses, [”I was deceived” is the main one, to which I reply, “If you were that stupid, you had no business voting in th first place”]but those are the facts.
This is good anyway. This will get people off gov’t money.
As we see here, any gov’t money has strings attached, short term or long term.
There’s two constitutional problems with DOJ’s anti-God policy. First,
only Congress can violate 1A, in this example by making a law which respects or prohibits an establishment of religion. It is not unusual for anti-religious expression judges, for example, to wrongly legislate anti-God policy from bench.
Regarding the funds being withheld because of religious issues, Justice John Marshall had officially clarified that Congress cannot lay taxes in the name of state power issues, religion a 10A-protected state power issue. So the funding for Young Marines that sheriff is refusing in name of religious expression should never have been taxed by feds in the first place imo.
Programs like this should get private funding....when I first read this story, my reaction was....I would send them money to keep a program like that going. I would rather have my money working for good then feeding some lazy pimp who WON’T work!
You are right...more and more the government under the Democrats are pushing God and especially Christians to the margins of society.
Soon the DOJ will be going after churches who do not allow homosexual marriage ceremonies...which is most of them. Don’t ever be confused about what is going on here...progressives HATE the Christian religion and want it gone...and they will use government to remove it from the mainstream of American life.
What is "this"?
I was in a different Young Marine unit than this one. I can tell you I would most likely have ended up in jail or hooked on some drug. I was the classic at risk kid. This program kept me out of trouble.
I was pulled over in Bossier Parrish once over 20 years ago...although I contest the Sheriff’s account of my velocity and believe the incident came about because of my California plates, I said “yessir” and paid the fine.
I would not mess with those guys.
Wanna bet they give money to people who bow down and mention a middle eastern deity a lot?
And seeing eye dogs will be banned for dislyecics.
LOL...not "this" SCOTUS, they be compromised..
/cracka..
This reaches further than this single event. Unconstitutional government funding is the actual issue here.
I applaud the Sheriff!
Ever American citizen has the right to say ...
“From this day forward, I sincerely promise, I will set an example for all other youth to follow and I shall never do anything that would bring disgrace or dishonor upon God, my Country and its flag, my parents, myself or the Young Marines. These I will honor and respect in a manner that will reflect credit upon them and myself. Semper Fidelis.”
Article. I. Section. 1.
All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.
There is No power Herein granted by the Constitution that empowers Congress to deny or censor speech.
However, the 1st Amendment prohibits Congress from funding the establishment of a state religion.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Now, let’s get back to the words in the oath in dispute. The oath is not the business of the government and therefore the government has no power to censor the words.
However, if the Congress funds the Department of Justice then the progressive agenda takes the opinion that funding is an attempt to establish a religion for the entire nation.
This is the loophole Obama and other constitutional activist use to discredit the founding documents’ declaration that rights came from their creator and replace them with the declaration that their rights came from government.
Unconstitutional funding of the Public School System is also the reason the government justifies removing prayer.
Has the payment received for selling your soul to the government achieved the change you hoped for?
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