A Washington-based secular atheist legal organization is suing a state agency in West Virginia over $5 million in public funds that it has approved for a Catholic college in Ohio.
With members in the state, the American Humanist Association filed the lawsuit in the Circuit Court of Kanawha County last week over the West Virginia Water Development Authority's October approval of a $5 million grant to the College of St. Joseph the Worker.
The Catholic institution of higher education based in nearby Steubenville, Ohio, offers a bachelor's degree in Catholic studies along with construction trades training.
The school applied for a $2.15 million grant to help "create a mission-driven, non-profit construction and real estate development company in West Virginia." The company would employ students in northern West Virginia and provide educational opportunities.
The school also asked for $1.65 million to help "increase enrollment and scholarships for West Virginian students," $200,000 to establish a branch of the college in West Virginia and $1 million for "advocacy projects."
The secular organization characterized the West Virginia Water Development Authority's action as a violation of "the Guarantee of Freedom of Religion codified in the West Virginia Constitution."
A copy of meeting minutes from the West Virginia Water Development Authority's Oct. 10 board meeting shows that the College of St. Joseph the Worker submitted an application for $5 million in Economic Enhancement Grant Funding from the agency on Oct. 4.
A copy of the application obtained by The Parkersburg News and Sentinel shows that the money will go toward the construction of a "real estate development and construction company" in Weirton, West Virginia, that will employ its students in "good work" for the purpose of "revitalizing the Ohio Valley."
Additional ways the college would use the money include working to establish a "self-sufficient continuing-education operation working out of Weirton" focused on providing students with a "bioethics certificate for continuing education in the medical and psychotherapy fields" as well as the construction of a research center that would "support broadly life-affirming policy in West Virginia."
The AHA is seeking a declaration that West Virginia's grant approval violated Article III, Section 15 of the West Virginia Constitution and an order granting the atheist group all "costs and reasonable attorneys fees included in this action."
The group argues that the College of St. Joseph the Worker has identified its "curriculum, formation, and even our business model" as "radically Catholic from top to bottom." The West Virginia Constitution states, "No man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place or ministry whatsoever."
In a statement announcing the lawsuit, AHA Executive Director Fish Stark asserted, "Humanists believe deeply in the freedom of conscience, and this attempt to force West Virginia taxpayers to fund religious activity is an offense against the Constitution and common sense."
"As a former West Virginia resident, I believe 'Mountaineers Are Always Free' means your faith is your business — no one else, and certainly not the government, has the right to push it on you," he added.
The college's founder, Jacob Imam, pushed back on the complaints against its grant application when speaking with WTOV.
"We heard that there was an eager opportunity to see real economic development in West Virginia," Imam said. "We thought, 'This is our neighborhood.' We feel that we are part of the Ohio Valley and that is this beautiful area that we're in."
Responding to AHA's criticism of its Catholic ideology, Imam asked if the school's "ideology" played any role in the "building, the choosing of buildings, any of the operations included in the final accepted application?"
"I really don't think that plumbing, masonry, and carpentry are ideological," he said. "That is what we're trying to do. We're trying to build beautiful buildings. That is something that doesn't matter where you are on the political spectrum, that we all appreciate seeing beautiful and well-built structures around us."
The ACLU of West Virginia, which is representing the AHA in its lawsuit against the state agency, contends that West Virginia taxpayers shouldn't be forced to "fund its mission."
"Tens of thousands of West Virginians wonder every day where they will get clean drinking water," ACLU-WV Legal Director Aubrey Sparks said. "The College of Saint Joseph the Worker has every right to exist and to educate its students in line with its religious worldview, but to force the taxpayers of West Virginia to fund its mission is wholly inappropriate and unconstitutional."
