Item from the Smart Marriages Archive, reproduced in the Divorce Statistics Collection

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Group claims Wisconsin marriage policy entangles government,
religion

By Jeremy Leaming
First Amendment Center

A group advocating strict separation of organized religion and
government is challenging Wisconsin's plan to help churches
counsel couples before they wed.
Wisconsin's state budget, passed in late October, includes an
allocation of $210,000 for the Community Marriage Policy Project.
The project funds a position in the Department of Health and
Family Services "for the purpose of coordinating the development
of, and assisting local members of the clergy to develop
community-wide standards for marriages solemnized in this state by
members of the clergy." The project's funding comes from federal
money sent to the state under the Temporary Assistance for Needy
Families program, which is earmarked to fund child care.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation, a nonprofit group based in
Madison that opposes the slightest entanglement between church and
state, wants a federal judge to declare the project
unconstitutional.

The group's complaint filed late last week states that the project
"entangles church and state, establishes religion, and interferes
with the free exercise of religion, all in violation of
established constitutional rights."

Along with filing the suit on behalf of its members, the group is
representing a Christian pastor who says the state initiative is
an unconstitutional interference with religious practice. "As a
member of the clergy, Reverend Charles Wolfe, as well as his
congregation, is injured by the state's impermissible interference
with his authority to determine the appropriate marriage standards
for members of his congregation," the lawsuit states.

The complaint asks U.S. District Judge John Shabaz to declare the
Wisconsin project a violation of the First Amendment, as well as
other fundamental rights, and to enter a permanent injunction
against its operation.

Assembly Speaker Scott Jensen introduced and urged passage of the
project, which he said was needed to help combat high divorce
rates.

Jensen also said the project, which churches can enter
voluntarily, was influenced by a program created by a nonprofit
Christian group called the Marriage Savers. The group is based in
Potomac, Md., and states that "the central domestic problem of our
time is the breakdown of the American family." Marriage Savers
says it works with churches nationwide to help couples maintain a
lasting marriage. "Too many churches are simply blessing machines
or wedding factories, grinding out weddings on Saturday, with no
strategy on how to help those couples be successful," the group
states on its Web site.

Jensen told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that the marriage
policy had a secular purpose and that tax dollars would not flow
to "any religious organization."

Dan Stier, legal counsel for the Wisconsin Department of Health
and Family Services, was unavailable for comment to free! about
the suit.

Anne Nicol Gaylor, president of the Freedom From Religion
Foundation, told free! that the policy amounted to an improper and
unconstitutional state involvement with churches and clergy.

"This budget act uses state money to establish religion, to
establish religious guidelines for use by religious officiators,
shows a preference for church officiators and church weddings, and
also curtails the free exercise of religion," Gaylor said. "The
state is sending a message that clergy are expected to conform to
Marriage Saver ideals."

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