Teen Offender Sentenced to Attend Church, but ACLU Objects

Tyler Alred, 17, of Muskogee, Oklahoma, had been drinking before he got behind the wheel of a Chevy pickup around 4 a.m. on December 3, with his friend John Luke Dum, 16, as a passenger.  When he crashed into a tree, Dum was killed.

Two breath tests at the scene showed Alred's blood-alcohol level at 0.06 and 0.07, which is below the 0.08 threshold for drunkenness for adults. But because Alred is underage, he was considered to be driving under the influence of alcohol.
Norman noted that Alred had a good record until that point, but said that the teen used poor judgment, with severe results.
Deciding to give the high school and welding school student a chance, Norman placed Alred on probation, with several conditions, including wearing an ankle bracelet that monitors alcohol consumption, undergoing regular drug and alcohol assessments, graduating from high school and welding school, attending victim-impact panels, speaking on the consequences of drinking and driving, and attending church for 10 years.
In court, Alred apologized to Dum's family. He and Dum's father embraced.
Alred's attorney said his client had no intention of appealing the sentence. He also said that Alred already attends church, so that requirement would not be a problem for him. Alred's minister was in the courtroom.
The American Civil Liberties Union, however, objected, and has filed a complaint about the church-attendance part of the sentence with the Oklahoma Council on Judicial Complaints. The ACLU insists that Norman's ruling disregards our nation's founding principles of religious liberty and violates Oklahoma's Judicial Conduct Code.
While acknowledging that Alred has expressed no complaint about the church-attendance requirement,  Brady Henderson, legal director of the ACLU of Oklahoma, said, "Judge Norman's decision to give this defendant a choice between church and prison cannot be enforced without illegal government intrusion into a young man's conscience. Not only is this inconsistent with our nation's fundamental guarantees of freedom of worship, it is also offensive to the very religion it is meant to advance. Acts of faith should come from a freely made choice to adopt a faith, not from the government giving its citizens an ultimatum to sit either in a pew or a prison cell."
Despite the ACLU complaint, Judge Norman is standing by his decision. "If someone wants to appeal my decision, they're entitled to do that," he said.
"I received a couple of bad calls -- one from Oregon and one from Missouri -- telling me it was in violation of the U.S. Constitution," Norman added. "They may well be right, but that's what I did, and we made a record."
Muskogee County District Attorney Larry Moore said he knows of no law that would authorize a judge to order someone to "participate in a religious event as part of punishment. I anticipate a constitutional issue with separation of church and state," he said.
Moore added, "I'd love for courts to order somebody to go to church, but part of my job is to uphold the Constitution."
More on this story can be found at these links:

ACLU Files Complaint After Teen Sentenced to 10 Years of Church Attendance. TIME
ACLU Files Judicial Complaint Over Oklahoma Teen's Church Sentence. Tulsa World
Judge Stands by Decision to Require Teen to Attend Church. Tulsa World
 The Big Questions
1. What value are we likely to receive from church attendance if we are there against our will? Considering that many young people are required by their parents to attend church, even when those youth would rather not, is there a difference between parents requiring such and a judge requiring such? When should children be given the option to "make their own call" regarding church attendance? Can -- and should -- the government act in loco parentis in these decisions? Did you ever think of attending church as the equivalent of a prison sentence? If so, what changed that view for you?
2. Spiritually speaking, what might regular weekly attendance at church accomplish that sporadic attendance might not?
3. What is the biblical view of attendance at worship services?
4. To what degree is living a Christian life an individual endeavor? To what degree is it a congregational endeavor?
5. What aspects of our spiritual growth, including satisfying the hunger for righteousness, are related to regular church attendance? Can there be a negative impact to regular church attendance? For example, instead of a hunger for righteousness, do we risk developing self-righteousness because we regularly attend? If so, how can we avoid that?
Confronting the News With Scripture and Hope
Here are some Bible verses to guide your discussion:
Exodus 20:8
"Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy." (For context, read 20:1-17.)
If we are looking for a biblical directive to attend church, we might start with this commandment, one of the "big ten." But actually, nowhere in Scripture does God say, "Go to church every Sunday." There are plenty of biblical examples of God telling the Israelites to worship him. For example, 2 Kings 17:35-36: "You shall not worship other gods or bow yourselves to them or serve them or sacrifice to them, but you shall worship the LORD, who brought you out of the land of Egypt with great power and with an outstretched arm; you shall bow yourselves to him, and to him you shall sacrifice." But those verses are really talking about the ancient sacrificial system, which was something different from how we worship God in church.
Still, the commandment above seems to apply, especially if we count Sunday as the Christian equivalent of the Jewish sabbath, but even then, Sabbath-keeping is something larger than attendance at a public worship service. It is the devotion of a whole day every week to God and the life of the spirit. It includes lifestyle changes for that day and family practices designed to remind one of one's covenant with God. And there is the troubling fact that the gospels document Jesus as one who sometimes broke the Sabbath rules, doing such things as healing people on that day. As he put it, "The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath" (Mark 2:27).
Still, the sabbath command is part of the church-every-Sunday rationale.
Question: In what ways does your attendance at church fit into the spirit of the weekly sabbath?
Psalm 42:1-4
"As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When shall I come and behold the face of God?
My tears have been my food day and night,
while people say to me continually, 'Where is your God?'
These things I remember, as I pour out my soul:
how I went with the throng, and led them in procession to the house of God ..."
(No additional context needed.)
This psalm gives a clear reason for attending "the house of God": It's a way to drink at the stream of God, to satisfy that thirst for God. Admittedly, not every worship service succeeds in quenching that thirst, but regular attendance makes it more likely that our spiritual needs will be addressed.
Question: Think of a service where you especially felt the presence of God. In what ways did the worship convey that presence?
Luke 4:16
"When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom." (For context, read 4:14-21.)
There are important examples in the Bible for us about attending worship. Luke tells us in the verse above that it was Jesus' custom to go to the synagogue on the sabbath day, and Acts reports that Paul had a similar practice (Acts 17:2).
This has echoes in secular philosophy. For example, ethical virtue has been defined as "a habit disposed toward action by deliberate choice" of behavior that avoids the pitfalls of being too lax or too strict. Customary -- but not slavish -- synagogue attendance fits in as an ethical virtue.
Questions: What role does custom or habit play in your spiritual development? In what ways is it a help? In what ways can it be a hindrance?
Acts 2:46-47
"Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved." (For context, read 2:43-47.)
Some of the first members of the early church apparently worshiped daily. Acts reports, "Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple ... praising God ..."
Question: In what ways do you give daily attention to your faith?
Hebrews 10:24-25
"And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another ..." (For context, read 10:19-25.)
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These two verses are the closest biblical reference we have to a command to attend Christian worship. Notice that the writer of Hebrews says that one reason for doing so is to encourage one another. And he was right. Church isn't like school where you attend for a while until you receive your "B.A. Christian" degree (Get it? Huh, huh?) and then you graduate. The church has no alumni association. We need to continue to be part of a faith community both for what we receive and what we contribute.
Question: Besides upping the attendance statistics, what does your regular attendance in church contribute to the faith of others who also attend those worship services?
For Further Discussion
1. Comment on this, from the Oklahoma ACLU legal director: "Acts of faith should come from a freely made choice to adopt a faith, not from the government giving its citizens an ultimatum to sit either in a pew or a prison cell."

2. Comment on this, from a TWW member: "Even though I would encourage troubled people to seek after God personally and in the context of a church family, I have a problem with a judge placing prison and church attendance on the same level, so that to avoid the former, one would be forced to accept the latter. I can't help but think that could easily lead to resentment, hypocrisy and projection of one's feelings about governmental authorities onto God or church authorities."
3. Respond to this, from a sermon by Texas pastor Charles Aaron: "Did we come to church this morning thinking it was a safe thing to do? Did we come with some expectation of receiving a blessing, a bit of comfort, but no real challenge? Did we think about the possibility that an encounter with Jesus would rearrange our lives, explode our priorities, cause us to give more than we ever expected? Did we think we could get a little something from Jesus, a dose of grace to help us through the week? Did we come for the fellowship, the music, the spiritual boost? No one can argue with those reasons."
Aaron continues, "The risen Christ, however, may have had other plans for this worship service. Christ may want to come under our skins and transform us. Christ may see through us so that something we have well hidden comes to the surface. Christ may kick out from under us the things we use to prop ourselves up, but that we don't really need. Are we ready for that? Did we bargain on that when we walked through the door today?"
4. Respond to this, from Ernest Campbell, former pastor of Riverside Church in New York City. "From the very beginning of the human enterprise, religious longings have required institutional form. We need each other: the uplifting of a shared liturgy, a shared fellowship, a shared service. However personal our faith may be, it cannot possibly be private and survive. Let it be remembered that Jesus was not a spiritual Lone Ranger going off on his own. He was a product of the Old Testament church and one who heralded the dawn of the New Testament church. The local church, faults and all, is the central entity of the Christian enterprise."
5. Devotional writer Carl W. Franke notes that when geese fly in a V formation, the flapping of each goose's wings creates an upward lift for the goose that follows. When all geese do their part, the whole flock has a 71 percent greater flying range than if each bird were to fly alone. Also, when one bird begins to lag, the others "honk" it into position. Franke says, "I am sure that it is at least 71 percent easier to live the Christian life 'flying with the flock' -- being active in the church -- than trying  to go it alone. And it is good to have the advantage of being lovingly called back into position if we stray from our faith." Do you agree? Why or why not?
6. One TWW team member commented that for some attendees, the church becomes the "social satisfaction community" without being a place where they are spiritually fed. How do you define "being spiritually fed"?
Responding to the News
It is good from time to time in the church to remind ourselves what we gain from regular attendance. It is also good to examine whether the components of our worship service are designed to feed the spiritually hungry and strengthen the faith of each person who attends. 

Closing Prayer

May our worship of you this day, O Lord, be pleasing in your sight. In Jesus' name. Amen.