CINCINNATI (ABP) — A federal appeals court has resurrected a case involving a Kentucky Baptist children's home accused of using taxpayer dollars to indoctrinate children with religious beliefs.
The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Aug. 31 that a lawsuit filed by taxpayers to end state funding of Kentucky Baptist Homes for Children — now known as Sunrise Children's Services –can move forward.
It overturned a decision by a lower court last year to dismiss the case following a Supreme Court ruling that narrowed taxpayers' rights to sue over allegations of state-sponsored religion.
The lead plaintiff in the lawsuit is Alicia Pedreira, who was fired from her job as a family specialist at Spring Meadows Children's Home after her employers found out she was a lesbian. Her termination notice said she was fired because her "homosexual lifestyle" was contrary to the agency's values. A later policy announcement cited KBHC's "Christian values."
Six Kentucky taxpayers, including Paul Simmons, an ordained Baptist minister and chairman of the board of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, joined the case alleging that the children's home is a "pervasively sectarian" religious institution using tax dollars to indoctrinate children with religion and claimed the $12.5 million a year the organization receives in state funding violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
A federal district court ruled last year that the Supreme Court's 2007 opinion in Hein v. Freedom From Religion narrowed taxpayers' ability to sue over violations of the First Amendment's Establishment Clause — which bars government support for religion — and dismissed the lawsuit. The appeals court disagreed with that interpretation of Hein, however, and ordered the case sent back to the lower court for further proceedings.
"This Baptist agency has made no secret of the fact that it was evangelizing children under the state's care in complete disregard of the Constitution’s ban on government-sponsored religion," Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United, said in a press release. "We're extremely pleased that the court has made it clear that taxpayers have the right to challenge government when it promotes religious doctrine."
William Smithwick, president of Sunrise Children's Services, said the agency does not promote the Baptist faith among children it serves and will defend itself in federal court.
"We'd like this resolved so we can continue to take care of the kids," he told the Louisville Courier-Journal. "We think we are doing a good job with that."
Simmons, a former professor at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary who now teaches at the University of Louisville School of Medicine, said Kentucky Baptist Homes for Children "did a good job working with disturbed and disenfranchised children who were in need of help and assistance toward maturity."
"Unfortunately, they had, like so many church groups, gravitated toward financial assistance from the state that removed any meaningful support from Baptists," Simmons said. "Seventy percent of the budget was being paid by the state."
"[James] Madison once made the point that such organizations were agencies of the state, not of the church," Simmons said. "Baptists thus were caught with their greed and short-sightedness showing. The courts have ruled against such arrangements and Baptists can only regret they had sold their heritage for such a mess of pottage."
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Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.
Previous ABP stories:
Groups ask federal appeals court to halt Kentucky's funding of Baptist agency
Analysis: Courts only slightly less open to church-state suits after Hein case
Supreme Court denies taxpayers ability to sue Bush over faith-based funding