Letter: Can’t use taxes for religious discrimination

Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2004 | 9:08 a.m.

In his Sunday letter complaining about the First Amendment's ban on government support of religion, Frank Perna states, "In a democracy, the majority rules, yet we allow a tiny minority to inflict their views ...'

Let me remind Mr. Perna that we live in a constitutional republic rather than a pure democracy. That means in the United States minority views are not subject to what has been described as a "tyranny of the majority."

Perna mentions Catholic Charities and Salvation Army as examples of religious organizations doing a fine job of serving the needy with support from government funding. I agree. But the current law under which they operate does not allow the government funds to be used for proselytizing and the organizations cannot discriminate based on religion.

The legislation now being proposed (Community Services Block Grant), however, would remove current restrictions and would allow these and other religious organizations to discriminate against people based on their religion.

Although I am not part of Perna's "majority," my Constitution gives me the right to not have my taxes used for religious discrimination. Churches can discriminate and proselytize all they want as long as I am not forced to participate in funding such discrimination and proselytization.

MEL LIPMAN