Gov Jindal mocks separation of church and state

    Governor Bobby Jindal

Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana mocks the separation of church and state. Jindal is taking helicopters to church paid for by tax-payers dollars. The Louisiana governor spent $180,000 in taxpayer funds during his first eight months in office to travel by a State Police helicopter to many of the same churches he visited while on his campaign trail. Jindal has since spent another $45,000 traveling to even more churches.

Jindal certainly has the right to practice his own faith. But he does not have the right to preach all over the state on the taxpayer’s dime.

It’s also important for Jindal to understand the rules governing tax exemption for religious and other nonprofit institutions. Federal tax law plainly forbids a house of worship to engage in partisan politics. If churches are serving as a political base for one candidate, they’re overstepping legal bounds.

Jindal’s appearances at these churches are as much political as they are religious. And that’s a misuse both of religion and tax payer money.

The Rev. C. Welton Gaddy, pastor of Northminster Baptist Church in Monroe, La ., and president of Interfaith Alliance, a national interfaith group "dedicated to protecting the boundaries between religion and government for the good of both institutions", is standing up for what is right.

Gaddy has released an open letter to Jindal that says, in part:

If you were traveling to these churches to worship with the various congregations, you should have paid your own expenses to get there as did the other worshipers. If you were traveling to these churches for the purpose of sharing your personal faith and encouraging faith in others, state funds absolutely should not have been used to pay your expenses.... If you were traveling to these churches for political purposes, you should not have been there in the first place, regardless of who funded the travel.

...Governor Jindal, it appears that you owe the people of Louisiana an apology and the treasurer of the state a reimbursement of at least $45,000...

Jindal's flagrant violation of the separation of church and state mocks the constitution. He should be compelled to reimburse the good people of Louisiana and he should be expelled from office at the earliest opportunity. A man who subverts the constitution for his own personal gain, a man who shows no remorse for his blatant corruption, has no business in public office.