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About The Georgia bulletin (Atlanta) 1963-current | View Entire Issue (March 19, 1987)
PAGE 16 — The Georgia Bulletin, March 19, 1987 L, Increase Urged In Welfare Levels WASHINGTON (NC) — Welfare benefit levels and much of the welfare system itself constitute an “'af front to conscience” and are in need of reform, the executive director of Catholic Charities USA told a House subcommittee. Father Thomas J. Harvey, whose organization represents diocesan Catholic Charities agencies, said sustenance for families in need of welfare “has declined about 40 percent in real dollars.” Father Harvey testified March 10 before the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Public Assistance and Unemployment Compensation about the main family welfare program, Aid to Families with Depen dent Children, or AFDC. “Current benefit levels and much more about the AFDC program are an affront to the conscience,” he said. “I say this both because of the religious teachings of my church ... and because it is undeniably a judgment which is shared by the other religious denominations which make up our pluralistic society." He recommended an immediate change in welfare policy so that more families with two parents at home can receive welfare. He likewise recommended a minimum benefit level for welfare receipients in every state. Although welfare is a federal program, it is ad ministered by the states. “There can be no reasons" for denying welfare to families with two parents at home “other than a desire to cut down on government spending or poor program design,” Father Harvey said. “And these are not sufficient reasons to foster desertion or cheating. Other than an emphasis on work, there is no clearer consensus in this nation than that welfare ought to help families, not hurt them." The Catholic Charities official also suggested that the working poor should be permitted to retain their Medicaid health care benefits, at least temporarily, and be recipients of “available and affordable day care.” Catholic Schools Not Affected By Textbook Ban In Alabama BY STEPHENIE OVERMAN WASHINGTON (NC) — A federal judge’s ban of about 40 textbooks from Alabama public schools has no immediate impact on parochial schools, two state Catholic educators said, but a national Catholic education official sees wider implications in the court’s intervention. U.S. District Judge W. Brevard Hand ruled March 4 that the banned history, social science and home economic texts illegally promoted "the religion of secular humanism." The history books "discriminate against the very concept of religion, and theistic religions in particular, by omissions so serious that a student learning history from them would not be apprised of relevant facts about America’s history," Hand wrote. Also, “for purposes of the First Amendment, secular humanism is a religious belief system, entitled to the pro tections of, and subject to the prohibitions of, the religion clauses. It is not a mere scientific methodology that may be promoted and advanced in the public schools," he wrote. The state board of education voted March 12 to appeal the decision. The state had asked Hand to allow the books to be used at least until the end of the school year, and the judge indicated he would temporarily halt his order. The suit was filed by parents and teachers who argued that Judeo-Christian teachings were not tolerated in classrooms while secular humanism was. Opponents said the suit was an attempt to re-establish the teaching of Christianity in the state’s public schools. Thomas L. Doyle, vicar of education for the Archdiocese of Mobile, and Sister Carole Gurdak, curriculum coor dinator, said two banned history books are being used in several high schools in the archdiocese but that the ruling poses no immediate problems. There's “nothing from the state mandating" the removal of those books from Catholic schools, Sister Gurdak, a Sister of St. Agnes, said. "They've not called and said we must take books out of the schools." Father Thomas G. Gallagher, U.S. Catholic Conference education secretary, was concerned about wider implica tions of the ruling. “I don’t think legislators should be involved in cur riculum decisions, or the courts either," Father Gallagher said. “I don’t like to see the resolution of differences in the court.” “Look at Felton,” he said, referring to the 1985 U.S. Supreme Court decision that public school teachers could not give remedial instruction in parochial school classrooms. The ruling resulted in many parochial students being bused to remedial classes or receiving no instruction at all. “When the court steps in the problems get worse," Father Gallagher said. Doyle said that he understands from the ruling that the textbooks are "not so much wrong" in their treatment of religion as they are lacking in almost any reference to God or religion. He does not believe the ruling is likely to lead to the danger of promoting a particular religion. Instead it could “give religion its due where it is historically valid to do so. " Father Gallager said “I think secular humanism is cer tainly a religion, if you want to start defining them. It has a world view, which is basically what a religion does." "Is it being taught? The fact of the matter is that studies ... indicate that the textbooks are skewed," Father Gallagher said, adding that whether that is intentional "I can’t say.” Thomas J. 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