Everybody Won!

I usually sit here all night, monitoring the news wires and picking out stories that are newsworthy enough to write. But, every once in awhile, an editor walks up to me and tells me to write a story that is usually not newsworthy and is usually guaranteed to raise my blood pressure. Here's one I just did.

A U.S. federal appeals panel has ruled that states cannot fund evangelical Christian programs to help prisoners re-enter civilian life, because they foster religious indoctrination and violate the constitutional separation of church and state. The ruling by the three-judge panel Monday was based on a case in (the central state of) Iowa. The activist group, Americans United for Separation of Church and State (, or A.U.), released a statement welcoming the decision and saying that the ruling was a "major setback for the White House's Faith - Based Initiative." The group said the decision by the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals should bring states' plans to establish such programs to a "screeching halt." However, the religious group Inner Change Freedom Initiative, which runs the evangelical program, welcomed the panel's ruling, saying that since its programs are privately-funded, the injunction does not apply to them.

Now, that seems to be a simple enough story. But, I had to walk a fine line to be fair to both sides. Here's the corrupt New York Times' take on it:

A federal appeals panel ruled yesterday that a state-financed evangelical Christian program to help prisoners re-enter civilian life fostered religious indoctrination and violated the constitutional separation of church and state. The decision by a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, in St. Louis, was the latest in a series of rulings over the last year to reinforce laws that bar government money from promoting religion, said Robert Tuttle, a law professor at George Washington University who is an expert on religion-based initiatives.

And here's a press release from the loathsome Americans United for Separation of Church and State:

A federal appeals court today ruled that tax funding of an evangelical Christian rehabilitation program at an Iowa state prison violates the separation of church and state and must end. The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that government support for the InnerChange Freedom Initiative at Newton Correctional Facility -- a program operated by Chuck Colson’s Prison Fellowship Ministries -- advances religious indoctrination at state expense. Americans United brought the litigation against InnerChange on behalf of inmates, their families and taxpayers.

Now, you'd think by reading those two articles that Christianity had suffered another defeat at the hands of pagans. But, read this press release from the Inner Change Freedom Initiative:

ST. LOUIS, Dec. 3, 2007—Today former United States Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and two appellate judges, Judges Roger L. Wollman and Duane Benton, reversed major parts of a federal district court judge’s ruling against a voluntary faith-based pre-release program for prisoners launched by Prison Fellowship. Ruling for the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, they found that District Court Judge Robert Pratt over-reached in much of his 2006 decision in a lawsuit brought by Americans United for Separation of Church and State against the InnerChange Freedom Initiative (IFI), Prison Fellowship and the State of Iowa. Today's decision overturns Pratt's order for the program to be shut down and for IFI to repay Iowa the $1.5 million paid by the state under a contract for services from 2000-2006.

It's as if you were reading a totally different story! Melding those totally opposite viewpoints to write a fair and balanced story was not easy. Now, you can see how the secular left will use any type of deception to further their agenda. Never trust liberals.