Federal Funding of Christian College Under Fire
by Jim Brown
May 23, 2005
(AgapePress) - A two-year college affiliated with the Evangelical Covenant Church of Alaska is hoping a new lawsuit won't result in the Christian school losing federal financial aid.The Wisconsin-based Freedom from Religion Foundation has sued the U.S. Department of Education to rescind federal funding to Alaska Christian College. The group claims federal aid to ACC amounts to an unconstitutional endorsement of religion. But ACC president Keith Hamilton says the lawsuit could derail the transition made by Alaskan natives into higher education.
"We believe that our government ... and those who had made the decisions all through the lines of checks and balances to get us this funding, believe that it is within our rights in a religious institution to have an opportunity to give students scholarships, for instance," Hamilton says. "We're standing to lose $100,000 of student scholarships, which will devastate our students who are going to be able to come next year to Alaska Christian College."
Might there be some good come of the lawsuit? Hamilton is optimistic.
"We were the best-kept secret in Alaska -- and now we're not," he notes. "We're hoping that the Christian community and the Americans who don't believe that [the Freedom from Religion Foundation's] interpretation is the right interpretation of our First Amendment will step up and will gather around us.
"So in some ways we're grateful that this is being brought to light so that we have a way to tell the story of the amazing things that are happening up in Alaska with these young people who really have very few choices for any kind of education after high school."
Last year, 92 percent of the students at ACC commuted from the Alaska western bush, a rural area that is only accessible by airplane. The U.S. Department of Justice is handling the case.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
