All the talk in Washington this week has been about the budget deadline, and understandably so. But something monumental happened yesterday that has been taking a backseat to all the finger-pointing and grandstanding going on in the halls of Congress. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of an Arizona school voucher program that the ACLU decried as unconstitutional, scoring a huge victory for conservatives everywhere.
The justices ruled 5-4 along ideological lines, with Alito, Scalia, Roberts, Thomas, and Kennedy forming the majority. Elena Kagan wrote her first dissent, and Anthony Kennedy wrote the majority decision. Justices Scalia and Thomas wrote a separate opinion that outlined an even stronger position on the issue.
As you can probably guess, the ACLU argued that the program is unconstitutional because it improperly directs taxpayer funds to religious schools. But that position was rebuked since the law only allows taxpayers to direct their own tax dollars to religious schools. So as far as the majority was concerned, the plaintiffs lacked the standing to sue because their tax money was not being used for the program.
The attacks on religion in our country never cease to amaze me. I laugh when organizations like the ACLU claim that religious views are being forced onto them, and that public funds should never be used for anything remotely tied to organized religion. How about the fact that they're trying to force their secular views onto us? Shouldn't we, the taxpayers, have a say in how our taxes are utilized by the government?
Growing up in Jersey City, my parents sent me to Catholic school after realizing that the public school system was unsafe and that I would not be academically challenged. They paid their property taxes like any other citizen, and incurred the extra cost of Catholic school tuition. They did this despite the fact that we were not rich and both of my parents were blue collar, working class people.
I am forever grateful for their sacrifice, and I know I wouldn't be where I am today if they hadn't made it. But in my view, they got shortchanged. There is no reason why they should not have been permitted to allocate their tax dollars to pay the tuition for both me and my brother to attend Catholic school. To me, it's a matter of personal liberty. They should have had that freedom to choose the best education for their children, but instead they had to support schools that they were not benefitting from.
The first time I heard of school vouchers was when Bret Schundler was elected mayor of Jersey City in the late '80s. He took a special interest in educational policy, and school vouchers were a cause that he championed right up through his gubernatorial campaign. Unfortunately, he lost the election to McGreevey, and suddenly there was no further talk of school vouchers in New Jersey. Rest assured that the NJEA, which is vehemently opposed to school vouchers, did everything they could to see that Schundler was defeated.
But after Chris Christie was elected governor in 2009, he named Schundler as his Commissioner of Education, and it suddenly became clear that the school voucher issue was returning to the forefront. Even after the fallout between the two that resulted in Schundler's dismissal, Christie continues to tout school choice as something that is badly needed in our state.
Why is it that the left is constantly attacking programs like school vouchers? Why do they fight so ferociously to take bibles and the doctrine of creationism out of public schools? Yet we on the religious right sit back and watch as our tax dollars are used to fund organizations like Planned Parenthood, and thus indirectly support countless abortions every year?
Religion has been under relentless duress in this country for quite some time. Those of us who believe in one nation under God and don't want to see our great country fall victim to atheism need to do something about it. Sometimes I feel as though we fall into the trap of becoming passive, since we strive to emulate a Savior who was gentle, loving, and forgiving. Hence it's not in our nature to retaliate against the forces that want to eradicate religion once and for all.
But we need to get with the program. Christ may have been gentle, merciful, and all those wonderful things, but he was also firm in standing up for what was right. He put the Pharisees in their place when they challenged him. He overturned the tables of the moneychangers and those who were buying and selling in the temple. He didn't back down in defending the truth.
It is in this way that we need to follow his example. One can sense that the tide is starting to turn, and we have to put the pedal to the floor in order to keep up the momentum. Yesterday's victory at the Supreme Court was not insignificant. The House of Representatives is pushing to withdraw all public funding for Planned Parenthood, and to repeal a healthcare law that goes against core Christian convictions in so many ways. Thus there is reason to be optimistic when you see the leaders we currently have in place.
But we need more of them. If we're going to make significant progress, then we need to take back the White House and the Senate in 2012. That is what we as Christians can do to defend our religious faith. We can elect leaders who will support us in our beliefs, and not use our tax dollars to support causes that are diametrically opposed to those beliefs.
Yesterday's victory at the Supreme Court was a victory for conservatives, organized religion, and personal freedoms. It was also a defeat for atheists, secularists, and even public employee unions that don't want to see any money taken away from the public schools. It was a monumental, historic decision that could help turn the tide in the battle between secularism and the religious right. I hope that it will, and I remain hopeful that America will one day see the grave mistake it made when it turned away from God, and that it will do everything it can to correct it.
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