Atheist group sues over faith-based initiative

(RNS) The Freedom from Religion Foundation has filed suit against officials of President Bush’s faith-based initiative, saying their actions unconstitutionally favor religious organizations.

The eight-page complaint, filed June 17 in U.S. District Court in Madison, Wis., questions federal funding of faith-based groups as well as the national and regional conferences sponsored by the White House Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives.

Defendants named in the suit include Jim Towey, director of the office, executives of similar cabinet-level offices and several members of Bush’s cabinet.

The Madison-based foundation of atheists and agnostics charged that leaders of the faith-based initiative, through the conferences and in other ways, “send messages to non-adherents of religious belief that they are outsiders, not full members of the political community.”