Zach Wamp Wants To Build Government Church In Community With Scores Of Churches
Zach Wamp won’t be wandering the halls of the U.S. House of Representatives for much longer. He’s campaigning to become Governor of Tennessee in 2010, and is relinquishing his seat in Congress in order to do so.
Until 2011 comes around, however, Representative Wamp will continue to be active in congressional politics. So, it’s worth it for all Americans, but especially residents of Tennessee, to pay attention to what Wamp is up to.
What Wamp’s up to lately includes wasting millions of dollars in unnecessary spending. This week, Wamp reported an earmark that would be directed to the construction of a luxury worship chapel on Fort Campbell, which spans the border between Tennessee and Kentucky. The earmark designates 14.4 million dollars for the deluxe facilities.
This spending is clearly unconstitutional. The first clause of the First Amendment to the Constitution forbids Congress from taking any action to establish religion. Building a multimillion dollar church surely is an establishment of religion.
Besides the constitutional problems, Wamp’s earmark comes in spite of the fact that there are multiple military chapels already in existence within the walls of Fort Campbell. In addition to these military chapels, there are over 90 non-government churches within 10 miles of Fort Campbell, representing all sorts of denominations. With a choice of many on-base chapels, plus nearly 100 churches within a 15-minute drive, there isn’t any need for Wamp’s new luxury government-funded church.
Zach Wamp’s government church earmark shows a disregard for the highest law of the land and a profound lack of fiscal responsibility. He’s creating a federal government program that will compete against local churches, depriving them of membership and funds in a kind of religious public option.
[...] Wamp is a Republican, but he supports the public option. No, not the health care public option. Zach Wamp supports a federal government-funded public option church back in [...]
stomp on wamp…. is he crazy??
This article and subsequent comments are ridiculous. The federal government has been building places of worship on military based for the past 100 years. Let me guess, you people are atheist, far left anti-defense pathetic flag burners. Perhaps you should consider looking around you and you might find that Zach Wamp reflects the values of Tennesseans and you folks appear to be more West European. I will buy you plane ticket if you would like to move.
Jeff, are you aware that almost 2 out of every 10 Tennessee residents does not believe in the Christian God? Do those Tennesseans deserve Zach Wamp’s representation less than Christians do?
I challenge you to show me any multimillion dollar church built on an army base 100 years ago. The issue isn’t just that there’s a massive violation of the separation of church and state. It’s also that there’s massive waste involved.
Besides that, as the article points out, there already ARE many chapels on the military base, and something like 100 churches within a quick drive of the base.
Why are you supporting a big government effort to outcompete local churches? Is it really Tennessee values to have government-run churches instead of churches that run themselves? Do Tennesseans really want to public option churches?