Indiana State Agency Ends Controversial Chaplaincy Program

The Associated Press reported yesterday that Indiana's Family and Social Services Administration (FSSA) has decided to end its new program of creating a network of volunteer clergy to work with its employees. Rev. Michael Latham, the Baptist minister who had been hired by the agency to implement the program, has been ill and recently went on disability leave. His job performance had become the subject of criticism. Also in May, the Freedom From Religion Foundation had filed suit challenging the constitutionality of using state funds to pay Latham's salary. (See prior posting.) The FSSA said that its decision to end the program was not a result of the pending litigation.