ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, March 13, 1996 TAG: 9603130076
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: ASHBURN
SOURCE: Associated Press
Christian conservative Mike Farris squared off in a debate Tuesday with the head of an organization dedicated to the separation of church and state.
Farris, president of the Home School Legal Foundation, and Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, appeared before a crowd of 125 at a Loudoun County middle school.
Farris, national co-chairman of Pat Buchanan's Republican presidential campaign and an unsuccessful candidate for lieutenant governor in 1993, said religion has been placed on the back burner in American society.
``Religion in general and Christianity in particular have been crowded out of the public square in the United States,'' he said. ``Those who have pushed separation of church and state bear some indirect responsibility for moral decay.''
Lynn, former legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, warned of letting religious groups become too influential in the political realm. One of his targets was vouchers for religious schools.
``We should not have to pay for the religious education of students. It is tyrannical to ask one person to pay for the religion of another.
``If a parent gives state money to [a religious school], it is a direct, unequivocal transference of tax dollars to religion,'' Lynn said.
The Loudoun County Democratic Committee sponsored the debate.
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