Today’s Baltimore Sun reports on a provision in Maryland’s state budget bill enacted last month that provides a $150,000 grant to support a religious conference that will attract as many as 50,000 visitors to the state. On June 19-23, the National Baptist Convention plans to hold its Congress of Christian Education in Baltimore. Supporters of state funding say that the convention will bring tourism and economic activity to Maryland. The state grant will cover transporting convention attendees from hotels to the Baltimore Convention Center. It supplements $297,500 approved by Baltimore City Council for transportation and venue fees. The legislature stipulated that the state grant was contingent on review by the state attorney general. This week, Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr. issued an opinion concluding that the state could provide the grant funds without violating the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause.
Not everyone agrees that the conference with the theme “The Heavenly Vision: The Message of the Church" can appropriately be funded by the state. Montgomery County Delegate Richard S. Madaleno Jr. said "This is clearly a religious conference that is all about furthering the goals and the mission of one particular denomination. Which they are so welcome to do - but not at the taxpayers' expense." Americans United for Separation of Church and State has issued a statement opposing state funding. Pointing to a planned conference on the challenge to the Baptist faith by cults, AU executive director Rev. Barry W. Lynn told a Baltimore Sun reporter that the state clearly cannot subsidize attacks by one religious group on another.
