Community service and separation of religion and state?

Question

I live in Los Angeles, California and I need to get 60 hours of community service hours by the time I finish the 11th grade. I want to do it at my church, but my teacher says that it can't be religion or church related. Is that true or is my teacher lieing?

Answer 1

Your teacher is probably not lieing: Most schools do not count volunteering at a church as community service. That means volunteering at the local atheism group also doesn't count. Your school also probably doesn't count volunteering in the service of a political candidate. If you want more clarification, ask your teacher for a copy of the policy, so that you can read it yourself. The reason for this prohibition on volunteering for religion or political candidates is because it's seen as self-serving, as a promotion of your own personal beliefs, and while YOU might think your personal beliefs are good for the community, many others disagree.

VolunteerMatch (http://www.volunteermatch.org), Idealist (http://www.idealist.org) and CraigsList (http://www.craigslist.com) all list volunteering opportunities with thousands of organizations, many of them in Los Angeles. These are great places to look for volunteering opportunities. Also, contact your local volunteer center; you can find this via the Points of Light Foundation web site.

Answer 2

It may be school policy.

In that case it is true.

School policy may be vague, and the teacher may just be covering her butt.

Perhaps by church related, the policy means strictly evangelising would not count as community service, but serving soup in a church kitchen without preaching to the recipients of the aid would be OK.

Many schools and organizations stipulate no religious OR political causes.

The corporation where I work will match our charitiable contributions to any 5013C organization provided they are not primarily POLITICAL or RELIGIOUS.

This would be a good matter for you to investigate further.

Answer 3

Community service is community service. Sadly, there is no separation of church and state. But there should be someone in charge of you like a case worker or something that you should be able to ask for an official answer. Good luck.