Serve Time In Jail...Or In Church?

[rampling]

OK, when I was a li'l kid, going to church felt like a sentence to me... but this is beyond crazy and obviously unconstitutional: Story: Serve Time In Jail...Or In Church?
Pointed to here.
Wow. How do they even think they can get away with this??
UPDATE: Apparently the ACLU is already moving on this.

Comments

[baerana]

oh, they'll get away w/ it. if anyone complains, they'll expand it to any temples/mosques around (doubt there are any) and say that atheists should suck it, 'cause, you know, atheists are immoral and NEED church anyway. It's not unlike AA - another religious program people are sentenced to go to

[rampling]

At least AA is officially nondenominational/nonspecific about your "Higher Power", and will often make noises about letting you choose your Higher Power to be something that's not actually a deity.

Actually having to pick a church off an official list -- that's way beyond the offenses of AA!

[sinboy]

Weeeeel, if I founded, oh, say, a church of the Sub Genius, and invited anyone in the stockade out to a hot dog cookout every Monday, surely that would count, right?

[wcg]

I had a steady stream of troops who got the "Join the Marine Corps or go to jail," thing from a judge. It's probably just as shaky a proposition on legal grounds, even the Corps isn't a religious denomination.

My guess is that they might argue an atheist could join a non-creedal church like a Unitarian or Quaker group. Neither of those requires a belief in any sort of deity.

[dieppe]

It does equate church with jail---and you do get a choice of churches! I'd pick a nice friendly UU church, personally and be done with it! :)

[dieppe]

Actually doing more thinking on this... Yeah, a horrible separation of church and state issue, as well as cruel and unusual punishment

[amaebi]

Yeah, what a stinky idea on all sorts of fronts.

I love the ACLU. And I keep being puzzled at the pat dishonesty whereby Constitution-citing conservatives don't love the ACLU.