EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK: Overturning Roe, Religious Liberty in Maine, World Vision and Israel

Editor’s Note:  Most Saturdays we will feature this “Editor’s Notebook” column. MinistryWatch President Warren Smith will comment on one or more stories in the week’s news, adding an additional perspective or, sometimes, a behind-the-scenes look at how the story came to be.

Overturning Roe.  My phone and computer lit up when Roe was overturned on Friday morning.  I got several emails from media, asking for comment.  My comments were simple:  This is a great day for America, but it is a milestone on a journey, not the destination.  This decision will not eliminate abortion, but make it a decision of the states.  The fight continues.

But it is a fact that the landscape of pro-life ministries will likely shift.  Several of the national organizations had been so focused on overturning Roe that they will need to discover new reasons to exist, and new messages to their donors.  

When people have asked me where to give pro-life dollars, I always say that your “first dollars” should be to your local pregnancy resource center (PRC).  That’s the advice I will continue to give, more emphatically than ever.

Two Americas?  The decision to overturn Roe was not the only big SCOTUS decision this week.  The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that religious schools can’t be excluded from a Maine program that offers tuition aid for private education, a decision that could ease religious organizations’ access to taxpayer money.  Currently more than 30 states have some form of tuition aid or voucher program.  

The decision was hailed as a victory for religious liberty, and it is. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for a 6-3 conservative majority that the program violates the Constitution’s protections for religious freedoms.

“Maine’s ‘nonsectarian’ requirement for its otherwise generally available tuition assistance payments violates the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment. Regardless of how the benefit and restriction are described, the program operates to identify and exclude otherwise eligible schools on the basis of their religious exercise,” Roberts wrote.

But it will also likely widen the divide between red and blue states, at least in the short term.  This decision could radically alter the education system in the states that allow taxpayer funded tuition assistance.  Consider, too, the trend toward red states (Tennessee, Florida, and Texas in particular) to eliminate or dramatically reduce state income taxes.  The overturning of Roe v. Wade, which will not eliminate abortion but will return that decision to the states.  What will likely emerge in a post-Roe America will be a dozen or so states (California, New York, and others) with progressive policies that are far to the left of most of America, and a dozen or so states (likely led by Texas and Utah) that are significantly to the right.  

I’m not saying this is a bad thing, but it will be chaotic.  Democracy is messy.  Stay tuned.

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World Vision and Israel.  One of the most interesting and vexing stories we’ve covered in a while is the story of a World Vision employee who was convicted this week of diverting money to the Islamic terrorist group Hamas.

Six years ago Israeli authorities arrested Mohammed el-Halabi, the director of World Vision International’s work in Gaza.  He has maintained his innocence for the entire six years.  He even turned down a plea deal that would have released him from prison in three years.  Add to that:  World Vision and outside auditors have found that no funds were missing.  Nonetheless, a court in Beersheba found him guilty of terrorism charges.

World Vision, two major auditing firms, a team of forensic auditors, the Australian government, and groups representing donors created a 400-page report that disputed many claims in Israel’s case.

Israel said $50 million was diverted to Hamas, with “millions” being diverted every year, but World Vision says that’s impossible because its Gaza budget for the previous 10 years totaled only $22.5 million. And el-Halabi had served as director for less than two years at the time of his arrest.

World Vision has stood behind el-Halabi, but it has had to be careful.  If it supports el-Halabi directly, and he is ultimately convicted (which he was), World Vision would have been vulnerable to charges that they were aiding and abetting a terrorist.  Instead, World Vision’s official position is that they “have no reason to believe that the allegations are true.”