Jim Banks is the chairman of the Republican Study Committee in the House of Representatives, which is challenging the legality of State Department grants - on the order of up to $500k each - given to international 'organizations dedicated to the spread of atheism and humanism.'
President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Anthony Blinken received the group's challenge in a letter on June 30 regarding the department's competitive grant program issued in April 2021 for "Promoting and Defending Religious Freedom for Atheists, Humanists, Non-Practicing and Non-Affiliated Individuals" in South Central Asia, the Middle East and North Africa.
“As an initial matter, therefore, we would like to know what other United States government programs supported with appropriated funds are being used either to encourage, inculcate, or to disparage any official belief system—atheist, humanist, Christian, Muslim, or otherwise,” Banks and the other signers told Blinken.
According to the signers, in addition to the constitutional problems with the grant or cooperative agreement program, the program was also misguided from a foreign policy perspective.
1st July 2022
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