Next week the Supreme Court will hear a major church-state case. The church in this case would like to fix-up its pre-school playground. The state of Missouri would fund this type of thing for a public playground but is prevented from funding this request because the state constitution says “no money shall ever be taken from the public treasury, directly or indirectly, in aid of any church, sect, or denomination of religion.” The case is before the court to decide if the church can get the money.

I am not a lawyer and I don’t like church-state entanglements but it seems to me that the church-state issue could be avoided by making the pre-school a secular organization that rents space from the church, perhaps with some sort of break on the rent in return for letting the church use the playground. I do not know about the pre-school in question but if it is of a religious nature or if there are other entanglements with the church this may not work.

It seems to me if the state can pay for a playground fix in a church related-school, we are starting down a slippery slope.

Should the state pay for sidewalk repairs? Afterall we do not want tripping hazards for young children. How about structural repairs to the building? We do not want the roof to collapse on the pre-schoolers? The list goes on and on.

Maybe the Missouri constitution provides the correct answer.