First of all, money was not given directly to a church. That did not happen at all. We need to start with Article I, Section 7 of the Missouri Constitution, which reads as follows:
"That no money shall ever be taken from the public treasury, directly or indirectly, in aid of any church, sect or denomination of religion, or in aid of any priest, preacher, minister or teacher thereof, as such; and that no preference shall be given to
nor any discrimination made against any church, sect or creed of religion, or any form of religious faith or worship."
See the bold section.
In this case, public funds were available for playground surfaces. The intent of the program was two-fold: (1) protect kids and (2) get rid of old tires. Trinity qualified for the playground surface. But for it being affiliated with a church, the school would have received the surface. It was discriminated against because it is affiliated with a church. In addition, providing the surface to the playground promotes the two goals of the program and does not foster religious teaching because it is a playground.
Here is another key point from page 11 of the decision:
"Trinity Lutheran is not claiming any entitlement to a subsidy. It instead asserts a right to participate in a government benefit program without having to disavow its religious character."
Exactly.
If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went. - Will Rogers
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