A bill to continue a defunct school voucher program in Washington, D.C., passed the U.S. House on Wednesday afternoon by a largely party-line vote. Reps. Michele Bachmann, Chip Cravaack, John Kline and Erik Paulsen voted for the measure while Reps. Keith Ellison, Betty McCollum, Collin Peterson and Tim Walz voted against the bill. The controversial program has been criticized as ineffective and essentially a tool to funnel taxpayer money to religious schools. President Obama stated on Tuesday that he opposes the measure.

Scholarships for Opportunity and Results Act, a bill sponsored by Kline, allows low-income parents in D.C. to receive $7,500 in federal funds to pay for private schooling. A pilot version of the program was instituted during the Bush administration and expired in 2009. Subsequent studies of student performance has shown no increase in student achievement.

A report by the U.S. Department of Education, released in June 2010, found, “There is no conclusive evidence that the [program] affected student achievement. On average, after at least four years students who were offered (or used) scholarships had reading and math test scores that were statistically similar to those who were not offered scholarships.”

However, the program is popular with Republicans and religious conservatives. In Minnesota, state GOP leaders are attempting to create the same program with a provision in K-12 budget bills.

On passage of the federal program, former Gov. Tim Pawlenty praised House Speaker John Boehner, who had pressed for the program.

“No child should be forced to go to a failing public school, yet that’s just what President Obama did when he sided with the teachers’ unions and ended this popular program,” Pawlenty said in a statement. “These scholarships have a proven record of success of empowering parents of underprivileged students in our nation’s capitol to choose the schools that are the best fit for their children. Today’s vote is a victory for school reformers across America.”

But not all are hailing it as a victory.

“We’ve already tried vouchers in the nation’s capital and we know that the program has shown no improvement in student performance, lacks accountability, hurts public schools and subsidizes religious indoctrination with taxpayer funds,” wrote Sandhya Bathija of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. “It’s been clear that this isn’t about helping D.C.’s kids, but about a political ideology that opposes public education and church-state separation… Taxpayers should never be forced to support religion; that violates the fundamental right of conscience. Eighty percent of students in the D.C. program used vouchers to attend religious schools that integrate doctrine throughout their curriculum.”

President Obama released a statement on Tuesday urging a ‘no’ vote on the measure.

The Administration opposes the creation or expansion of private school voucher programs that are authorized by this bill. The Federal Government should focus its attention and available resources on improving the quality of public schools for all students. Private school vouchers are not an effective way to improve student achievement. The Administration strongly opposes expanding the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program and opening it to new students. Rigorous evaluation over several years demonstrates that the D.C. program has not yielded improved student achievement by its scholarship recipients compared to other students in D.C. While the President’s FY 2012 Budget requests funding to improve D.C. public schools and expand high-quality public charter schools, the Administration opposes targeting resources to help a small number of individuals attend private schools rather than creating access to great public schools for every child.

The watchdog group Americans United for the Separation of Church and State sent a letter to Minnesota Senate leadership Monday warning the chamber that Pastor Dennis Campbell‘s prayer last week was unconstitutional. Addressed to Senate President Michelle Fischbach, Majority Leader Amy Koch and Minority Leader Tom Bakk, the letter also urged the leaders to either refrain from allowing prayers in the Senate or to ensure that if it continues to do so it does in a way that respects other traditions.

The letter — which was signed by Ayesha N. Khan, Americans United’s legal director; Gregory M. Lipper, the group’s litigation counsel; and staff attorney Ian Smith — stated that numerous courts have ruled the type of prayer that Campbell gave, one that quotes Christian scripture and invokes Jesus Christ, unconstitutional.

“Pastor’s Campbell’s prayer was unconstitutional because it was sectarian and proselytizing,” the letter states. “The U.S. Supreme Court has held that the Constitution permits prayers at the beginning of legislative sessions if those prayers do not contain language or symbols specific to one religion.”

The letter, which cites reporting by the Minnesota Independent, goes on to state that several lower courts have allowed even broader leeway than the Supreme Court, and the type of prayer given by Campbell was of the sort that those lower courts have ruled against.

“Pastor Campbell’s prayer was unconstitutional even under the more permissive standard adopted by” other courts, wrote the attorneys.

The letter concluded, “Because the Senate is designed to represent all Minnesota citizens, regardless of faith, we urge you to refrain from opening future sessions with any type of prayer. If the Senate does continue open meetings with prayers, however, the Constitution requires you to ensure that they do not advance any particular religion.”

The prayer raised the ire of non-Christian senators and departed from longstanding tradition that allowed clergy from different faiths to offer prayer so long as the prayer is inclusive of all senators’ beliefs. Over the weekend, Campbell addressed those concerns, especially by Jewish lawmakers who commented, stating that he wasn’t “seeking to offend anybody but seeking to show respect for Jesus Christ, the creator, redeemer, savior and one day our judge, and we know the founders of the constitution were very supportive of Jesus Christ and the Bible.”

The letter, which appears below, echoes sentiments shared with the Minnesota Independent last week by Rob Boston, senior policy analyst at Americans United:

2011-03-21-minnesota-senate –

Controversial Pastor Dennis Campbell gave a Jesus-filled prayer on the Minnesota Senate floor on Monday on the invitation of Senate Republicans. That speech led to calls by several of the chamber’s non-Christians to ensure that prayers in the Senate are conducted in a nondenominational manner for fears of violating the state and federal constitutions. Watchdog groups say those are very real concerns.

Sen. Teri Bonoff of Minnetonka, who is Jewish, told the Associated Press on Tuesday that she wants leadership to change language in the Senate rules so that the word “request” in reference to interfaith prayers in the chamber be changed to “require.”

“I’m a very religious woman and believe deeply in God,” Bonoff told the AP. “We honor God in public and our political discourse, and that’s proper. But in doing a nondenominational prayer we are honoring him without violating the separation of church and state.”

According to Rob Boston, senior policy analyst at Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, Campbell’s prayer came close to violating that constitutional requirement.

He told the Minnesota Independent that the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Marsh v. Chambers allowed legislative prayers as long as they are non-sectarian — without expressing a particular religion.

“Some lower courts have weighed in since then, including in some cases sponsored by Americans United,” he said. “We have argued that in light of Marsh, legislative prayers must be non-sectarian.”

He said a number of lower courts have held to that standard with one exception: The U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals covering Georgia, Alabama and Florida found that prayers could be sectarian so long as they don’t proselytize.

“Regardless of what the courts say, Americans United opposes official legislative prayers in all cases,” said Boston. “Government-sponsored religion inevitably has the effect of elevating one faith over others and sending the message that some citizens are second-class citizens.”

He also said that at times pastors will inject politics into something that’s supposed to be for every member of the chamber. For example, in 2009, a pastor in Kansas gave a prayer that condemned abortion.

Boston added, “In other cases, fundamentalists have protested when non-Christian prayers are offered.” He cited a prayer given be a Hindu priest on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives. Christian conservatives were livid that a faith they didn’t hold to was honored in Congress.

That was the case in 2001 when the Dalai Lama spoke before the Minnesota Legislature. While the Tibetan Buddhist leader did not give an invocation, his mere presence as a religious leader riled conservative Christians.

“As a Christian, I am offended that we would have the Dalai Lama come and speak to a joint meeting of our Minnesota Legislature,” said then-Rep. Arlon Lindner. “He claims to be a god-king, a leader of the Buddha religion, which historically has been considered a cult because of its anti-Biblical teachings concerning the one true Holy God, Creator of Heaven and earth and His Son, Jesus Christ.”

Boston said it’s incidents like those that create problems when prayers are offered at government functions.

“It would be best if the government got entirely out of the prayer business,” he said. “It’s not the job of the state to sponsor any form of religious worship, even a seemingly ceremonial legislative prayer. If members of the Minnesota Senate feel the need for spiritual guidance, I have no doubt that there are many members of the clergy in the Twin Cities area who would be happy to meet with them on a voluntary basis.”

Rep. John Kline, chair of the House Education and Labor Committee, is one of five sponsors of a bill that would continue a controversial religious school voucher program in Washington, D.C.. The program, which was launched for a five-year trial in 2003, was found to have failed to improve student achievement in the district, but did have a benefit for social conservatives — it helped fund religious education in the nation’s capitol city.

HR471 would provide D.C.parents with $7,500 vouchers, called scholarships under the bill, to use to send their children to any school in the district. During the program’s pilot, it was shown that the program increased graduation rates by 12 percent but did not have any impact on academic achievement.

A report by the U.S. Department of Education, released in June 2010, found, “There is no conclusive evidence that the [program] affected student achievement. On average, after at least four years students who were offered (or used) scholarships had reading and math test scores that were statistically similar to those who were not offered scholarships.”

But what the program did do was funnel taxpayer money to religious schools; 80 percent of the vouchers were used for religious schools, and 53 percent of those were for Catholic schools. Under the new program, Protestant Christian and Islamic schools are expected to participate.

Catholic hierarchy has vociferously argued for the voucher program as the number of Catholic schools in the nation drops each year.

“The children at Holy Redeemer were, unlike so many of their peers, on the path to college,” wrote the administration of Notre Dame University when the program expired in 2009. “So we were deeply saddened to learn that the impending termination of the OSP has put the school in an untenable situation, leading the pastor to conclude that the school must be closed.”

Constitutional watchdogs say the program is not a good idea.

“I can’t imagine a worse time to unveil a new federal subsidy for religious schools,” the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State said in a statement. “This proposal would add to the federal budget deficit while subsidizing schools that indoctrinate and discriminate in hiring.”

“Public funds should be directed toward improving public schools, not private schools that are unaccountable to the American people,” he said. “Religious schools serve the interests of their religious communities, and taxpayers should not be forced to foot the bill for them.”

Republican Reps. Michele Bachmann and John Kline, as part of the Congressional Prayer Caucus, chastised President Obama for not portraying America as a more Christian-like nation to the rest of the world. In a letter on Monday, the caucus complained that Obama omitted the word “God” five times during his recent trip to Indonesia and called on him to correct the record.

The caucus wrote that Obama used e pluribus unum (“out of many, one,” in Latin) as the motto of the United States instead of “In God We Trust.” While e pluribus unum is part of the nation’s seal and has been an unofficial motto since the country’s founding, the group was upset he didn’t use “In God we Trust” in its place.

“Additionally,” the caucus wrote, “during three separate events this fall, when quoting from the Declaration of Independence, you mentioned that we have inalienable rights but you consistently failed to mention the source of those rights. The Declaration of Independence definitively recognizes God, our Creator, as the source of those rights.”

The group said not mentioning God could have consequences for freedom.

“By making these kinds of statements to the rest of the world, you are removing on the the cornerstones of our secure freedom,” the caucus wrote. “If we pull the thread of religious conviction out of the marketplace of ideas, we unravel the tapestry of freedom that birthed America.”

Americans United for the Separation of Church and State trashed the letter.

“The Prayer Caucus should just admit that it is looking for any opportunity to bash the president,” the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United, said in a statement on Monday. “It’s not very Christian of them, but I expect nothing less from a body that takes its marching orders from the Religious Right.”

Added Lynn, “This is one of the silliest manufactured controversies I’ve ever seen, and I would advise the president to deal with it by tossing the caucus’ letter into the nearest wastebasket.”

Here’s the full letter:

National_Motto_Letter_to_President

Marcus Bachmann. Photo: Karl Bremer for the Minnesota Independent

The watchdog group Americans United for Separation of Church and State says it’s opening an investigation into taxpayer funds going to Bachmann and Associates, Inc., a Christian mental health counseling clinic owned by Rep. Michele Bachmann and her husband, Marcus. The Minnesota Independent first reported on the clinic’s receipt of public funds, totalling nearly $30,000, back in June.

“[W]e would like to think that Bachmann, as a member of Congress, knows better than to take state funds to run a sectarian organization,” wrote Sandhya Bathija on the group’s blog. “Catholic Charities and other groups may receive government funding, but they must keep their religious activities separate from their social services.”

She added, “It doesn’t look like the Bachmanns are doing that. If the clinic wants state funds, it must perform secular social services – not proselytize or discriminate in hiring. It’s as simple as that.”

According to Jason Wilson, a legal intern with Americans United, the group is investigating “Bachmann and Associates’ funding and how they receive their funds from the state and/or federal government.”

The arrangement raises questions about the constitutional separation of church and state, and some experts say the state has overstepped its bounds in contracting with Teen Challenge.

In 2001, the Minnesota Legislature approved a funding increase of 46 percent for Teen Challenge and authorized another in 2005, capping payments at $700 per unit. Experts say those funding increases create the impression that the state favors the treatment center which is closely affiliated with the Assemblies of God, a pentecostal Christian denomination.

“To me, I think, that the legislature is setting special rates for a pervasively sectarian organization is enough to make that funding unconstitutional,” said Alex Luchenitser of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. “You have clear favoritism and endorsement of a religious program.”

Religious character “inseparable” from treatment

Beyond perceptions of legislative favoritism is the question of how the state got involved with a religious ministry in the first place. The answer goes back a decade and involved two years of legal wrangling between Hennepin County and Teen Challenge.

In early 2000, Teen Challenge, Hennepin County and the Department of Human Services began a discussion about contracting with Teen Challenge to provide chemical dependency treatment services to county clients.

According to some 1,300 pages of documents obtained by the Minnesota Independent, that arrangement hit a few snags along the way as Hennepin County looked for a way to contract with a pervasively Christian program.

“I will tell you that Teen Challenge has been consulting with us for the past couple years and that there seems to be no way for them to separate the treatment from the Christian orientation and beliefs,” Peg Murphy, former program manager of Hennepin County’s Chemical Health Division, wrote in a letter to the Hennepin County Attorney’s office. “Because Hennepin County’s standard contract language precludes funding for ‘religious training or services,’ we do not intend to negotiate a contract with Teen Challenge in the absence of authorization from your office.”

She urged the county attorney to offer an opinion before county officials could negotiate a contract.

In early 2000, Hennepin County Attorney Amy Klobuchar approved the arrangement, presumably under the doctrine of “beneficiary choice,” giving Teen Challenge the go-ahead to submit an application.

The county rejected requests by the Minnesota Independent to obtain a copy of that opinion, citing the documents as “privileged.”

Klobuchar would go on to help secure a federal earmark for the program as U.S. Senator in 2008 along with former Rep. Jim Ramstad. And the organization has secured the support of a number of other elected officials. First Lady Mary Pawlenty was a past member of the board of directors, and Gov. Pawlenty has donated a large sum of campaign funds ($85,892) to the program. Rep. Michele Bachmann donated $9,200 in campaign funds related to the Tom Petters Ponzi scheme scandal, but Teen Challenge later returned the “tainted” funds.

“Beneficiary choice” means a client has a choice between a secular and a religious treatment program, and the client can pay money given by the government to the treatment of their choosing. In other states, the system works with vouchers, which Minnesota doesn’t use. Instead Teen Challenge gets paid a flat rate multiplied by the number of clients in its care who receive state assistance. It’s that rate that the Minnesota legislature voted to increase in 2001 and 2005.

Luchenitser said that the “beneficiary choice” arrangement that Hennepin County set up with Teen Challenge may be legally problematic.

“What’s clear is that this funding has to be completely under the control of the individual,” he said. If the money is not part of a voucher system, he added, then there isn’t a true choice of program, only “approved” programs that the county contracts with, such as Teen Challenge.

And the state sets the rate of reimbursement, not the client, which creates a constitutional problem when the Legislature decides to give a religious program “a raise,” he said.

“Government should not influence how much money goes to a specific provider,” especially when its a religious provider, Luchenitser said. “It puts the force of government authority behind it,” which he characterizes as an endorsement of religion.

While the County Attorney’s office gave the program the green light, problems continued to plague the fledgling arrangement because of MNTC’s religious nature. The county’s contracting department raised a red flag in 2001 about the evangelical treatment center’s hiring practices: Teen Challenge said it would only hire Christians who adhered to a statement of faith and a code of ethics.

“Minnesota Teen Challenge is a residential Christian discipleship program dealing with adolescents and adults with life-controlling issues, and is a para-church ministry operating under the authority of the Assemblies of God denomination,” the group’s statement of faith begins (PDF). “Our purpose is to train individuals (students) in our program to be disciples of Jesus Christ.”

That statement also states that “whether a person is preparing a meal, writing a computer program, or generating a financial statement” for the organization, that person must “be an effective witness for Christ.”

It requires all employees to pray for the program and may be called upon “to minister to program students” with their testimony.

In MNTC’s code of conduct, all employees are required to attend church and to pray. They are prohibited from viewing pornography or being in a romantic relationship with someone of the same sex.

Hennepin County took issue with those employment practices and rejected Teen Challenge’s application because it violated the county’s ban on religious discrimination. The county said that MNTC could resubmit the application with a new affirmative action plan.

Finally a compromise was reached: Teen Challenge limited the practice to executive, leadership, pastoral, and counselor positions.

Teen Challenge’s chemical dependency program manager Cecilia Winsor explained the news in an email to the county’s senior planning analyst, Michael Miller.

“There are certain ‘ministry’ positions which will have religious requirements to them, and those positions will only be filled by people who can perform the job,” she wrote (PDF). “A Muslim would not be considered for a Pastoral Counselor position, but would be considered to work in our Accounting [Department], for example.”

According to state records (PDF), Teen Challenge requires 21 of its 40 employees to be Christians.

Some of those job descriptions highlight the close connections to Pentecostalism. The executive director’s position description says that the director must be “approved by the Assemblies of God and endorsed by the National Division of Home Missions.”

The National Division is now called Assemblies of God U.S. Missions, and its mission is “to equip, empower and encourage the Assemblies of God to evangelize America.”

Teen Challenge International, Inc., of which Minnesota Teen Challenge reports to monthly, is one of the six ministries that make up the Missions.

Photo: Lori Howard, iStockphoto

Six members of You Can Run But You Cannot Hide International, a controversial ministry that holds Christian assemblies in public schools, are ordained as ministers, tax documents show. The members’ status raises questions about their activities in public schools as well as whether they are qualified to take advantage of tax breaks normally afforded to pastors and priests.

Some of the members listed as ministers are employed in the ministry’s punk band that brings its Christian message to public schools, possibly in violation of the constitution’s principle of separation of church and state.

Of the six ordained members, the documents reveal, five have been given a clergy housing allowance: tax-free payments by the ministry to support rent or mortgage payments. A church operating as a nonprofit must file IRS form 990, which must list any minister housing allowances as part of the employee’s compensation in order for the members to take the allowance as part of their income.

Jake MacAuley, also known as Jake McMillian, sidekick to ministry leader Bradlee Dean on the group’s radio show and a co-minister, was paid the allowance in the amount of $12,976 in 2008, the only year for which tax documents are available. According to another section of the 990 form (PDF), at least four other unnamed members of the ministry received a similar allowance totaling $54,532 in 2008.

The federal government has laid out specific guidelines on the definition of clergy for the housing allowance. A minister must: perform “sacerdotal functions” such as marriages, funerals and the sacraments of the faith; must conduct worship services; must control or maintain the organization; must be considered a spiritual leader; and must be ordained, licensed or commissioned.

It’s unclear how You Can Run fulfills all of those requirements. A request for information from the ministry has not been returned.

Perhaps more unclear is how You Can Run can consist of ordained ministers in order to get tax breaks while also claiming that it’s not performing religious functions in public schools.

Dean has repeatedly said that the group rejects the constitutional separation of church and state and frequently notes that it evangelizes at public high school assemblies. When asked by the Minnesota Independent whether the group preaches the gospel at schools, Dean said: not necessarily. “Seventy-eight percent of the American people are professing Christians,” he said. “Are they, in their line of work, to wear ‘I am a Christian’ shirts?”

In a lengthy piece in the Weekly Standard, the group said the only Christian message is in their music — the rest of their message’s focus is on morality. When speaking to supporters, however, Dean often states unequivocally that the ministry is bringing the message of Christ to public school students. In an April 2009 radio interview, one of YCR’s band members said, “We are speaking to kids in our schools about the Constitution, suicide prevention and our own testimony of how Christ turned our lives around in public schools so we can get the light into kids’ hands in public schools.”

The group, which says its goal is to reach 1 million young people through its ministry, has also garnered significant political support from politicians, including former Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer, gubernatorial candidate Rep. Tom Emmer, congressional candidate Allen Quist and U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann.

“I don’t want to say a minister couldn’t go into a school to do a secular assembly,” said Alex Luchenitser, senior litigation counsel for Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. “But obviously, ministers are not allowed to go into public schools to preach.”

But, he said, “The fact that they are ordained ministers is more evidence that they are doing religion in the schools.”

Clergy housing allowance “wildly abused”

Robert Baty, a former IRS appeals officer who has been following the uses and abuses of the clergy housing allowance, says YCR may be conforming to the law.

“They may well be ‘ordained, commissioned and/or licensed’ ministers in their religious group,” he said. “It doesn’t take much to get ‘ordained, commissioned, and/or licensed’ in many religious groups these days. And if that be the case, the organization paying them may well qualify as ‘religious’ enough so as to be able to designate all or part of their income as income tax–free housing.”

Baty pointed to Revenue Ruling 70-549, which greatly expanded who could take the tax benefits afforded to the clergy. He says the ruling was the “result of the pressure put on the IRS by George Bush, Sr., and [Texas Congressman] Omar Burleson” at the request of a Christian university.

“As a result, employees at private schools like Pepperdine can register as ministers and claim the housing allowance, regardless of the fact that they may be getting paid to coach basketball or lead the marching band — as opposed to a rock band [in the case of You Can Run],” said Baty.

Annie Gaylor of the Freedom from Religion Foundation said the You Can Run 990 disclosure demonstrates that the “parish exemption is wildly abused and out of control.”

Gaylor’s group is targeting the exemption in federal court, arguing that clergy are allowed enormous tax breaks not afforded to other classes of Americans and that it is an unconstitutional endorsement of religion. FFRF filed suit in late October in the California Eastern District Court against Timothy Geithner, Secretary of Treasury; Douglas Shulman, Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service; and Selvi Stanislaus, executive officer of the California Franchise Tax Board.

“All other taxpayers pay more because clergy receive this privileged benefit, not available to any other class of American,” said Gaylor.

In a press release surrounding the lawsuit, the group added, “Most notorious, clergy may ‘double-dip’: deduct their mortgage payments and real estate taxes from income tax, even though they paid for these with tax-exempt dollars, amounting to a government subsidy solely for clergy.”

Bradlee Dean

A former IRS attorney, who spoke with the Minnesota Independent on the condition of anonymity, said You Can Run’s tax forms do raise some concerns but there’s not enough information available to determine whether the allowances made are inappropriate.

“No one can qualify for [the housing allowance] unless they are licensed or ordained ministers,” said the former attorney. “Of course, the IRS is lax in enforcing it.”

“I doubt that all five of the members of You Can Run But You Cannot Hide would meet that requirement. I mean some of these guys are musicians,” the source said.

The former attorney also said that based on the 990 it didn’t appear that the group “played an integral part of any church or organized denomination.”

All the experts the Minnesota Independent spoke with cautioned that information is limited when it comes to tax information about religious organizations. In fact, the IRS gives religious organizations special treatment, shielding much of their information from public scrutiny and creating significant hurdles for the IRS to investigate possible abuses.

But despite those imitations, Luchenitzer agreed that the outward appearance of You Can Run is troublesome.

“Are they just five people who just decided to get together or are they ordained by an organized religious body? If it’s the former, it’s probably not what the IRS intended,” he said.

YCRBYCH's Bradlee Dean, who plays for the group's band. Image: YouTube

Civil liberties groups say that You Can Run But You Cannot Hide International — a ministry/punk band that brings its Christian message to public school kids — is causing schools to run afoul of the constitutional principle of separation of state and church.

Rep. Michele Bachmann, who says such a separation is a “myth,” will be headlining a fundraiser for the group in November.

“We’ve made complaints about them in the past,” said Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation. “And there are similar groups out there that use assembly subterfuges to gain access to a captive audience of school children.”

She said it’s incumbent on schools to research YCRBYCH before booking them for school activities.

“It is hard to believe schools don’t know what they’re getting into; all they have to do is a cursory check of the websites,” she said. “School Districts often pay exorbitant honoraria as well, so it adds economic injury to constitutional insult.”

She added that by not being honest about their evangelical mission such ministries are effectively turning public schools into evangelical recruitment centers.

“This is a devious strategy, used also by many ‘pizza evangelists.’” she said.

That term refers to evangelical ministries that seek to gain access to public school students by offering incentives not of a Christian nature, such as extreme sports, contests to win a car or pizza parties. The most common cases include these incentives along with a “secular” anti-drug assemblies, much like YCRBYCH does.

“Usually they don’t mention God or Jesus per se in the mandatory assemblies but they hand out invites to an after-hours event, often held at schools, which is open soul-winning,” said Gaylor. “It amounts to the public schools — whether officials are duped or not — recruiting for evangelists.”

While YCRBYCH admits that its public school program is designed to save souls, Gaylor says she’d doubt it’s effectiveness even if it was completely secular. “It’s dishonest and unethical, and we also question the value of the so-called secular program itself, which is often alarmist and painted in broad strokes, and can plant ideas, such as suicide, in immature minds.”

Alex Luchenitser, a senior litigator for Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, has concerns about the group’s activities — and those of similar organizations, like Power Team, a well-known evangelical ministry that uses martial arts to engage kids.

“They’d put on a secular program in the schools and then would invite kids to a separate religious event,” he said.

When asked if religion is part of YCRBYCH assemblies, the group’s front man, Bradlee Dean, was less than clear. “Morality is, which is the fruit of religion,” he said. “Our testimony of Christ is spoken of if someone asks us ‘what changed you?’”

But in public, YCRBYCH has admitted on several occasions that it’s trying to win souls in public schools. On the ministry’s radio show, one member of the ministry — talking with Dean — said they share with public school children “our own testimony of how Christ turned our lives around in public schools so we can get the light into kids hands in public schools.”

That doesn’t sit well with Luchenitser. “That this group is doing this is quite outrageous and a very clear violation of the separation of church and state,” he said. “And the fact that they seem to be intentionally misleading the schools is very disturbing to say the least.”

YCRBYCH’s “Principal Packet,” a pamphlet sent to school administrators about the ministry, doesn’t mention that it’s a ministry or that the program is religious in nature; it doesn’t mention God or Jesus Christ.

Luchenitser said that if the group is actually misleading the schools, it’s schools that could find themselves in legal trouble. “I think that because of the misrepresentations, it could subject the schools to legal liability,” he said. “Parents could turn around and sue the school.”

If the schools can prove they were mislead, they in turn could sue the ministry, he said.

Minnesota Teen Challenge's headquarters in Minneapolis' Elliot Park neighborhood. Photo: Andy Birkey, Minnesota Independent

A former crack user says she kicked her addiction because she found Jesus at Minnesota Teen Challenge. A man says that God healed his liver after a prayer service at the Christian drug treatment facility. While its clients sing its praises — some claiming it saved their lives — should such an overtly religious program be receiving taxpayer funding? According to state records, MNTC has gotten more than $2 million from the state of Minnesota in order to run its faith-based chemical dependency treatment centers.

The overtly evangelical nature of the program raises questions about the constitutionality of the large amount of state money flowing into the program. Teen Challenge has received $2,388,947 in state funding since 2007, mainly from the Minnesota Department of Human Services, according to the state’s new Transparency and Accountability Project website.

Teen Challenge has been in the spotlight recently because of concerns about the separation of church and state — and, specifically, the program’s receipt of federal funding. Americans United for the Separation of Church and State sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder in June requesting the department halt federal grants to Teen Challenge.

“In providing these grants, the U.S. Department of Justice is unconstitutionally aiding religion,” the complaint read.

But while much attention has been paid to the program’s federal funding, its receipt of state funds has largely flown under the radar.

Chuck Samuelson of the Minnesota chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union said the program has the appearance of running afoul of the constitutional principle of church-state separation. “Everything they talk about is about God in relation to the program,” he said. “That’s a lot of [state] money.”

Samuelson said ACLU-MN has been looking into the drug treatment center, but it’s difficult to prove whether Teen Challenge is misusing state dollars.

“We don’t have data that is supportable in a court of law,” he said. “What we don’t have is anybody with direct knowledge of the program to come forward.”

Eric Vagle, Teen Challenge’s communications director, acknowledges the religious nature of the treatment centers but says state money is kept separate from evangelical programming.

“The program services that are funded through the government are non-religious in nature, and while we do offer religious programming, it is not funded by government dollars and clients voluntarily choose to participate,” he said.

“It is important to note that a number of studies suggest that spirituality can play an important part of the recovery process for many people, and therefore most treatment programs have some sort of spirituality component to them.”

Alex Luchenitser, senior litigation counsel for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, sees the program differently.

“Teen Challenge is a program that should not be receiving state money,” he said. “It requires people who participate to convert to Christianity.”

Luchenitser says that the constitutionality of the program depends on the payment process through the state. He noted that court decisions have made voucher payments — state money given directly to the client to choose a treatment service — legal. Minnesota doesn’t use the voucher system and instead reimburses counties that pay Teen Challenge in a fee-for-service system. The state mechanism for that system is the Consolidated Chemical Dependency Treatment Fund (CCDTF).

State authorities conducted an analysis of CCDTF (pdf) in 2006, which described the payment structure:

The payment system is on a fee-for-service basis, but counties, within state-wide guidelines, determine which clients need treatment, and which provider will serve the client. Two thirds of all CCDTF admissions were referred by government social service and criminal justice agencies.

The report acknowledged that the county authorities who choose the treatment centers to provide services aren’t always looking at federal standards for treatment programs. Therefore, faith-based programs, such as Teen Challenge, don’t get carefully vetted.

County monitoring does not assure that certain Federal requirements regarding spending practices are met, and whether performance is adequately monitored. With the CCDTF accounting for 45% of the treatment market share, the county contract can be a powerful tool for change regarding providers that have not yet linked the most modern science to their program design and operation.

Because Teen Challenge is licensed by the state — and has been since 2001 — and is listed as a service provider for Hennepin County, the treatment center will continue to receive state funds in the future.

God is Teen Challenge’s treatment strategy

While MNTC’s Vagle says state funds don’t go to evangelical programming, most of the language about the program — coming from its managers, Web site and clients — references the transformational power of Jesus Christ, as opposed to chemical health and behavior therapy. A glowing review of the program by the Alexandria Echo Press tells of Carlos, Minn., resident Nikol Foss, who sought treatment for crack addiction. Her probation officer recommended Minnesota Teen Challenge, but she rejected the suggestion, saying she wanted nothing to do with a Christian drug program. She eventually relented and signed up.

“I was going to be tough,” she told the paper. “I wasn’t going to let Jesus into my life, but I’d take the treatment.”

But it didn’t work out that way. “I decided that if I accepted Jesus, it was going to be better, so I accepted Jesus,” she said. “I was happy immediately.”

Pastor Rich Scherber, executive director of the program, used similar language when he took Minnesota Teen Challenge’s message of healing to the Minnesota State Fair this summer. During a live show there by Christian talk radio station KKMS, he spoke of the “perfect storm” last fall when the economic recession reduced donations and a scandal involving Tom Petters wiped out a foundation that supported a large chunk of Teen Challenge’s programs.

“God has helped us. I mean, we are operating in the black, not in the red,” he said. “That’s what Teen Challenge is all about. God is working miracles at Teen Challenge.”

Scherber said that Christian teaching is one of two keys to Teen Challenge’s success: “Number one, the Christian approach,” he told KKMS listeners. “That’s by far… The Bible says that any man that be in praise, he’s a new creation, old things are passed away, behold all things are become new.” The other key Scherber says is the fact that the residential treatment lasts longer than the typical 28-day program.

Scherber brought a number of current and former clients on the KKMS show to tell their stories of transformation through Jesus Christ.

Jim, who had a history of abusing alcohol, heroin and pain killers, said, “We have healing [prayer] services at Teen Challenge and God healed my liver.”

“He came into Teen Challenge and God healed his liver,” said Scherber. “What the doctors have said is that he is a walking miracle.”

The KKMS host chimed in to say, “God has blessed the socks off this guy!”

Heidi, a current client at Teen Challenge, also claimed that finding God at Teen Challenge helped her kick a cocaine and heroin addiction. “I was at a low point… and ended up going to a secular drug treatment program,” she said. “When I came out I started using again. It didn’t do what Teen Challenge did for me.”

She continued, “I know now that it’s for [sic] this time, this time that I’m at Teen Challenge. I’m learning about God, I’m learning about Jesus.”

“I know that I have victory in Christ. Thanks to Teen Challenge I’ve been learning about God,” she said.

Virtually every testimonial on the program’s Web site by current and former clients of Teen Challenge say they kicked their addictions because of God, and a number say they converted to Christianity while in the program. For example, “Craig,” a current Teen Challenge client, said, “When the [District Attorney] recommended Teen Challenge, he told the judge he was tired of sending me to jail, because I came out worse every time. But Teen Challenge isn’t just a drug program. It’s a discipleship program. Because of Christ, I have new heart… and I don’t ever want to hurt people again.”

Directors and staff members aren’t shy about calling the program a ministry. Kirk Noonan, news editor of the Pentecostal Evangel, the official publication of the Assemblies of God, spent a weekend at Minnesota Teen Challenge in November 2007 and described the religious curriculum of the program (PDF).

In the television room we gather for the nightly devotion, which is part pep talk, part town hall meeting. With Bibles in hand we hear a devotion. This is perhaps one of the most important routines the residents are developing. “Staying in the Word will keep you grounded,” a staff member tells us. “Having a daily devotion is critical to your success both in here and after you graduate.”

Noonan writes that every Sunday, Teen Challenge clients sing in the Minnesota Teen Challenge choir. They are required to, since “every resident is a member.”

“The choir’s chief purpose is to share the ministry of Teen Challenge and gain support for the program,” Scherber told Noonan. “When we go out and sing, people see good fruit and they want to invest in this ministry. Nearly 85 percent of our budget is raised by the choir.”

The choir’s music is overtly Christian with a style that “varies greatly, ranging from contemporary gospel songs such as, ‘This is How it Feels to Be Free,’ to worshipful hymns like, ‘I Was Made to Worship You.’”

“We license faith-based organizations all the time”

The state did not respond to the Minnesota Independent’s requests for details about how taxpayer money is being spent by Teen Challenge and how the state vets and licenses chemical dependency programs.

But, in 2004, state officials talked to the Star Tribune for its coverage of President Bush’s faith-based initiatives and his push for charitable-choice initiatives, including Teen Challenge.

“We license faith-based organizations all the time,” Donald Eubanks, director of chemical health for the state Department of Human Services at the time, told the paper. “We do not dictate treatment philosophy at all. We make sure that when people choose that form of treatment that they are aware of what they are getting.”