By Harold Kruger
Appeal-Democrat
Yuba County
Supervisor Dan Logue defended the Church
of Glad Tidings on Tuesday from charges
that it pushed religion in programs paid
for with public funds.
"This is getting way
out of control," Logue said.
Last month, county
resident William Calvert sent a letter
to the supervisors complaining that Glad
Tidings, which is a subcontractor in a
Friday Night Live program, performs
exorcisms and considers some other
religions "occult."
Logue, who
represents Linda, said he had reviewed
materials the church prepared with
public money and found none of them
objectionable.
"If they're not
bringing religion into the process, I
don't have a problem with that," Logue
said.
He accused Calvert
of trying to "make a mountain out of a
molehill."
Calvert, who
appeared before the board, said he was
"not here to defame any members of the
church. What brought this to my
attention, the church was hammering on
the Masons."
Calvert, a Mason,
said he wanted to defend the group
because it raises money "for taking care
of crippled children."
Calvert had demanded
an accounting of public funds the church
collected through contracts with Yuba
County.
Tuesday, county
officials released an accounting of all
contracts with "faith-based, nonprofit
organizations" since 1999.
Since Aug. 1, 1999,
Friday Night Live has received about
$420,000 in state grant funds from the
county to run a teen pregnancy
prevention program.
Glad Tidings, a
Friday Night Live subcontractor,
received $58,000 during the period, the
accounting said.
Glad Tidings also
received $10,428 under a federal grant
program through the county to expand its
abstinence media campaign between
October 1999 and September 2001, the
report said.
Friday Night Live
also received $150,000 from January 2000
through December 2002 for a mentoring
program. The contract is supposed to be
renewed through June 30 for another
$25,000.
The House of Joseph
received $29,750 in state funds from
January 2000 through May 2002 under a
county contract to provide room, board,
transportation and supervision to
clients attending the For Our Recovering
Families program, the accounting said.
The contract wasn't renewed.
Twin Cities Rescue
Mission received $9,250 from January
2000 to February 2002 for the For Our
Recovering Families program to provide
counseling and Hepatitis C testing. The
contract expired.
The Salvation Army
Depot collected $128,360 from March 2000
through this month to provide group
counseling in anger management,
individual and family counseling and
other services, the accounting said.
"The accountability
of any of our contracts is absolutely
critical," said Suzanne Nobles, the
county's Health and Human Services
director.
Supervisor Bill
Simmons said he wanted "to make sure we
don't personalize this against any
individual or any faith-based
organization."
According to
Simmons, "This is not about faith-based
organizations. This is for accounting of
public funds. To bring Friday Night Live
into this is appalling to me. I don't
want this to be personalized against any
organization."
