Denominational Disconnect: Texas County Seeks To Make Kids 'Good Christians ... - Americans United (blog)24 May 2011, 12:11 pm
Officials with the Juvenile Justice Department in Cameron County, Texas, appear to be confused about the proper relationship between religion and government.
A new youth outreach center has opened in Harlingen, and for some reason, officials saw fit to decorate it with slogans from a book penned by L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of the Church of Scientology. Worse yet, the department’s director is under the impression that these slogans will help turn troubled young people into good Christians.
The Scientology slogans are raising eyebrows in Harlingen, reported the Brownsville Herald. The phrases come from a 1980 booklet by Hubbard titled The Way to Happiness, and Scientology backers describe them as non-sectarian and commonsense guidelines. But given that religion’s controversial image, others are not so sure.
Juvenile Justice Department Executive Director Tommy Ramirez Jr. insisted that the slogans are not meant to promote Scientology. Ramirez told the Herald, “There are no religions being taught, advocated, or preached by the Cameron County Juvenile Justice Department nor anyone associated with the department.”
He added, “There are universal morals, values, good character traits being provided to the youth we are trying to rehabilitate. We have been using these tools for eight years as a means of changing the lives of the youth we serve and molding them to become good Christian citizens in our community.”
So, the department isn’t teaching any religion – yet its goal it to helping young people become “good Christian citizens.” And it’s using a Scientology book to achieve this goal.
It sounds like quite a mess to me.
more at
http://blog.au.org/2011/05/24/denominational-disconnect-texas-county-seeks-to-make-kids-%E2%80%98good-christians%E2%80%99-%E2%80%93-with-scientology-slogans/
