It begins this week. On Wednesday April 6, the Taxation Committee of the Maine Legislature will conduct public hearings on two bills to fund religious school tuition with tax expenditures. These are the first of many bills up for consideration this session that will allow for a system of government-funded religion here in Maine. The principle against funding religion with public money pre-dates the Bill of Rights, and it has served this state and the nation well. Government entanglement with religion threatens to religious freedom. If you are concerned about excessive government involvement in our private lives, government funding of religion should be a concern to you too. There is no place more private than our places of religious study and prayer, and there is no place that the government belongs less.
In the coming weeks, the ACLU of MAINE will be testifying against other bills that upset the balance struck in the First Amendment between free exercise of religion and government establishment of religion. I hope that you will be there with us.
