Mississippi Hurricane Relief Fund Supporting Religious Organizations

I am posting the following on behalf of our own Mims H. Carter:

I have been asleep at the wheel. I have spent the last 4+ years working in Katrina recovery on the Gulf Coast. In that time, I have had many interactions with faith-based groups participating in the effort. I have had many chances to see the intersection of public money and faith-based organizations, and have made every effort to ensure that these interactions are, if not ethical or particularly fruitful, at least legal.

Today I was reading the Gulf Pine Catholic, a weekly periodical of the Catholic Diocese of Biloxi. In it was an article about the Mississippi Hurricane Relief Fund (MHRF), a resource set up by Gov. Haley Barbour to distribute money donated to the State of Mississippi after Katrina, granting a local catholic elementary school $25,000.00 to renovate its playground for pre-schoolers.

I have worked intimately with the Mississippi Hurricane Relief Fund. It is run under the Gulf Coast Community Foundation, a public non-profit that serves the six most southern Mississippi counties. The MHRF since it started concentrated on supporting the county long-term recovery coalitions, other state initiatives involved in the recovery effort, and helping to re-build local civic infrastructure like libraries, public playgrounds, civic centers, Boys & Girls Clubs. I had never heard of them openly granting money to a religious organization, unless it was a volunteer construction organization that needed money for building materials.

I just finished looking up their project history on the Gulf Coast Community Foundation web page, and found several other suspect projects, including another grant to a religious school and a retirement home run by a church. I am going to look in to the legality of these projects. I just can't see how this does not violate church-state separation.

Please post this at Mississippi Atheists. I would like to hear some feedback and see if someone else on the blog is interested in pursuing this issue.

Thanks,
Mims

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