Humanist group claims victory after challenging Dorchester school's food drive for church
Dave Munday
Oakbrook Elementary School students were collecting money and donating food for Old Fort Baptist Church's food pantry. Monica Kreber/Journal Scene
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A humanist group is claiming victory after challenging a Ladson school's food drive for a church.
The American Humanist Association, whose slogan is "good without God," sent a letter last month to Dorchester District 2 officials threatening legal action over Oakbrook Elementary School's support of students collecting food and raising money for Old Fort Baptist Church's food pantry.
The association announced Thursday that the district "has agreed not to sponsor or endorse churches and religious institutions in the future." [iframe name="ox_8114638759_537115096" width="300" height="250" id="ox_8114638759_537115096" frameborder="no" framespacing="0" scrolling="no"][/iframe]
"We strongly support charitable giving, but the good intentions of fundraisers and food drives can be achieved in ways that do not favor any religion," David Niose, legal director of the Appignani Humanist Legal Center, said in an email Thursday.
Students were raising money and donating food before Thanksgiving for the church's pantry, a part of its Community Impact for Christ program. The efforts were publicized on the school's website and in fliers supporting "Old Fort Baptist Missions."
The humanist association said it received complaints from some parents, and the association threatened legal action if the school didn't drop the project in a Nov. 20 letter to District Superintendent Joe Pye and Oakbrook Principal Monica O'Dea.
"The purpose of this letter is to advise you that such school-sponsored fundraising efforts - the proceeds of which go directly to an evangelical Christian Church - must immediately cease, and that our organization will pursue the matter through litigation in federal court if it does not," Monica Miller, an attorney with the Appignani Humanist Legal Center in Washington, D.C., said in the letter.
Responding to the humanist association, the school district's attorney, John Reagle, wrote that the $100 the students raised through the sale of thank-you notes and the food they collected were given to high schools for distribution to needy students instead of being donated to the church's food pantry.
While saying the district would not endorse future drives for churches or religious groups, Reagle stressed that the students' activities did not violate any laws concerning the separation of church and state.
"However, it is necessary to highlight that the OES's student council's canned food drive did not violate the Establishment Clause," Reagle wrote.
The First Amendment's Establishment Clause prohibits the government from making any law "respecting an establishment of religion." The clause is also invoked to prevent government from endorsing a religion, from helping or hurting a particular religion, or from becoming excessively entangled with religion, according to the Bill of Rights Institute.
Reagle noted in his letter that the fund drive met constitutional requirements - it had a secular purpose; its primary effect neither advanced nor inhibited religion; and it did not further an excessive government entanglement with religion.
The letter also pointed out that the church's food panty serves the needy without respect to religion, and donating food to the pantry would not have furthered any sectarian activities.
Efforts to reach the church's pastor, Eric Lethco, were unsuccessful.
Reach Dave Munday at 937-5553.
http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20141218/PC16/141219445
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