That headline seems a little weird, doesn't it?  But you read it correctly.  Recently the House voted along partisan lines to pass H.R. 2679 or "The Public Expression of Religion Act" which would prevent citizens who file successful lawsuits under the Establishment clause of the First Amendment from recovering legal fees from the government.  Current law allows plaintiffs to recover some costs from a wide range of successful constitutional and civil rights cases under the theory that these types of cases are expensive to file and that successful cases in these areas are good for the whole country.

The proponents of the bill want to cut down on First Amendment establishment cases so that Americans (including Christians!) who want to go to court to challenge episodes of government sponsored acts of religious establishment will have a harder time of it.  Some of the proponents mistakenly think that there is a secular conspiracy afoot that is trying to denude the public square of all expressions of religion and sees the establishment clause of the First Amendment as the primary tool to make this happen.  What this partisan view misses is the great blessing the establishment clause has been to religious freedom in American, including Christianity!  The amazing religious pluralism in America is due in part to the disestablishment of religion in our country.  What the sponsors are doing is carrying water for a handful of right-wing Christian groups who are intent on empowering government to endorse and sponsor their particular form of belief over other forms of belief, including the larger forms of Christianity in the country. 

This strategy may appear good to right wing Christian partisans.  And in the short run it allows Republicans to crow to fundamentalists that they are fighting for their values.  In the long run, if these Christians become dependent on state dollars and sponsorship for their success, the failure of their churches are pretty well assured.  Christians should reject this form of state sponsorship and pray that cooler heads in the Senate prevail and reject this dangerous legislation.  Let's work to keep the Church free of government establishment impulses and celebrate our freedom.