Religious Freedom at Stake
Last week on “BreakPoint” I told you about the InnerChange Freedom Initiative, or IFI, a faith-based program that helps prisoners become law-abiding citizens. I told you then that Barry Lynn and the Americans United for the Separation of Church and State had sued the state of Iowa, Prison Fellowship, and IFI, claiming that the initiative is unconstitutional.
Well, the judge’s decision was handed down late Friday, and it’s not good news for those of us who believe in religious freedom and who want to see prisoners transformed.
Despite the fact that the program is purely voluntary on the part of prisoners, the judge found that the program is unconstitutional because it was a Christ-centered program and received 40 percent of its funding from the state, even though 60 percent was raised from private donations. He ordered that the program be shut down in sixty days and that IFI and Prison Fellowship pay back the state of Iowa $1.5 million, money that the state had paid to IFI under a valid contract over the past several years.
An appeal will be filed within this week, and the IFI can stay open pending the appeal. And the order to pay back the money to Iowa is on hold as well until the appeal process runs its course. Prison Fellowship and IFI will appeal—all the way to the Supreme Court if we must.
Why? Simply this: Prison Fellowship wants to see a level playing field for people of faith. People of faith should not be excluded from providing services in the public square to those who have volunteered to receive them. We want prisoners to be able to take part in a program—yes, even a Christ-centered one—that will help them change their lives for the better if they desire to do so. Americans United, on the other hand, wants religion forced out of every aspect of public life, including prisons—regardless of the consequences for those prisoners who volunteer to participate.
Look what’s at stake here: 2.3 million prisoners in America today; 600,000 of them released this year alone; and two-thirds of them will be rearrested within three years. Why? Because merely warehousing prisoners leaves them unprepared to reenter society as productive citizens. Indeed, it makes them worse.
Yet prisoners who graduate from IFI after many months of education, hard work, community service, and transformation are far less likely to re-offend than other prisoners. And that has been shown true by an independent study done at the University of Pennsylvania.
Nonetheless, the judge has ruled against IFI, and in a way that could call into question any religious program in state, federal, or local prisons. Merely facilitating a faith-based program could be deemed unconstitutional if this ruling stands.
What’s more, his order that Prison Fellowship and IFI pay $1.5 million is virtually unprecedented and sets a troubling precedent. When you combine this order with the high legal costs of defending these kinds of suits, the message to faith-based groups is clear: We don’t want faith-based groups coming into the public square to offer charitable services.
Though the judge’s decision is troubling, we believe that the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court will see that offering prisoners the chance to transform themselves into productive citizens is not only constitutional, but also the right thing to do.
As I told you last week on this program, Prison Fellowship will stand for the religious freedom of prisoners and for all Americans. We can only hope that what happened with God being taken out of the classrooms of America thirty years ago does not repeat itself in America’s prisons as a result of the federal courts. I hope and pray that you will stand with us as well. Thank you and God bless you for helping us, praying for us, and standing with us at this very critical time.
