Prison Fellowship Appeal Could Have Impact on Other Faith-Based Programs
by Ed Thomas
December 11, 2006
(AgapePress) - - Prison Fellowship spokesman Mark Earley says a final brief has been filed in a case that the ministry believes has implications for faith-based government-sanctioned activities across the United States. The brief is part of an appeal of a federal district court judge's order, which shut down Prison Fellowship's InnerChange Freedom Initiative (IFI) program in Iowa prisons.
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Mark Earley |
Prison Fellowship will be taking on Americans United for Separation of Church and State and its suit against the Christian organization's faith-based IFI program in the spring, when oral arguments take place at the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. A subsequent ruling is expected from the appellate court by summer. Earley says the gravity of this appeal stems from the nature of the Iowa judge's order. Judge Robert Pratt ruled in June that the Iowa IFI, a comprehensive, faith-based pre-release program for inmates, be shut down and that Prison Fellowship repay the state $1.5 million for contract services performed over the past six years.
However, it is the basis of the lower court ruling that is particularly problematic, the ministry president notes. "This is an important case," he explains, "because the judge basically said that evangelical Christians, by his definition, could not do or say anything that was not intended to convert someone; and therefore, we couldn't do this program in a state-run prison."
Earley says his group feels Judge Pratt's reasoning "has problems on a lot of fronts." And if his ruling is allowed to stand, the Prison Fellowship spokesman contends, "it's basically going to threaten the ability of Christians to provide any kind of services, whether it's teaching or even acts of mercy such as [providing] food or medicine to people in any kind of government setting."
Ed Thomas, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
