I spoke to Rep. Neva Walker about this. Neva did some legislative research and found that there were so many similar bonding funds for nonprofit and religious groups over the past few years that she and the legislative aide didn't have the time to list them out.
Churches with big "youth ministries" do a huge amount of work with kids in after school and summer programs (ball teams, going to camp, bus trips to other cities and state parks, etc.). The kids who come to the programs are not required to be members of the church/synagogue/ashram/whatever. Churches have, as a consequence, lobbied for funding to subsidize this type of programming. Yes, if your kid goes to these programs he/she will be given a dose of whatever religion has the basketball court or soccer field. There is, however, a thin line in places between the belief structure of any one religion and the cultural norms of the society in which a specific church resides and is integral to. Playing fair is common to all religions, as is don't take things and don't hurt people. Surrogate parenting is another part of what they do--cross the street at the light, look both ways, watch where you're going, be aware of your surroundings. Your kids won't be hurt by that reminder either. They'll get much the same from the Minneapolis Park system's employees. But the parks cannot handle all the great number of children we have, so these churches are picking up the slack. They're not getting money to instruct kids in religion, but to keep them positively occupied and give them experiences they might not otherwise get--like Outward Bound loki anderson wrote: > How sad that a bonding line item gets passed >with inner city DFL support for a youth center that >has religious programs. The same folks who normally >foam at the mouth and get positively Madisonian in >defense of governmental nonpromotion of religion >suddenly lose their way. > Politics, allegedly the art of the compromise, is apparently weighing the "bad"--mixing politics with religion--against the "good"--have kids positively occupied all their waking hours. The churches, et.al. apparently have agreed to lighten up on the religion during sports and trips and whatever. I grew up in an area about as big as south Minneapolis where the majority were Catholic during a time when the Catholic Church forbad going into any other kind of church or synagogue or mosque. We were told not to hang out with non-catholics. It wasn't difficult, catlikers ruled on Price Hill. I got into the habit of cutting mass on Sunday mornings after I discovered a tiny black Baptist church not far from St. Leo's. I would sit under the window box in front of the church and listen to the wonderful music coming out of that church. It made a nice change from Gregorian chant--which is really cool too. So five days a week I went to mass and on Sunday I went to a rockin concert under the flower box. Then one day the minister caught me at it and walked me to St. Leo's saying they would worry about me if I didn't go to mass. To this day, I have no idea what Baptists "believe," but I can pick out a well sung hymn at 30 paces. WizardMarks, Central > > > > > >_______________________________________ >Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy >Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: >http://e-democracy.org/mpls > _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
