Governor Blagojevich

Here is more information concerning my previous post about Governor Blagojevich and the Pilgrim Baptist Church in Chicago.

From Lawsuit Lesson: Illinois Atheist Teaches Baptists About Their Heritage by Joseph L. Conn:

Does it take an atheist to teach Baptists about their own heritage?

Apparently so.

Atheist activist Rob Sherman has filed a lawsuit in Illinois state court seeking to block a $1 million government grant to Pilgrim Baptist Church. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Gov. Rod Blagojevich promised the money to the Chicago congregation after a fire damaged the church building.

But why is a church getting government money? What about the separation of church and state? Shouldn’t houses of worship be built and maintained with the voluntary donations of the faithful, not the hard-earned dollars of the taxpayers?

Well, yeah. But Blogojevich, a Democrat, was running for re-election at the time, and the promise seemed like a good idea - a little walking-around money for members of a prominent religious community.

“We all know Rod did this two months before his primary election victory over Edwin Eisendrath,” Sherman told the newspaper. “January 2006, when the fire happens, and he’s in the March primary against Eisendrath, Rod was pandering for black votes. I understand that. But you can’t have the state donating $1 million to a church. You can’t do that with tax dollars.”

Read the rest here.