Between a Rock and a Hard Place
Just about anything, it seems, can be ginned up into a religious freedom issue these days. The latest is a lawsuit filed in Harrisburg against the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources by the Institute for Justice, a conservative legal group, on behalf of Summer's Best Two Weeks, a faith-based summer camp in western Pennsylvania. The camp is aggrieved because DCNR said they had to use commercial guides for their summer rafting trips on the Lower Youghiogheny River, which they claim will cost them up to $30,000 per summer. The allegation is that DCNR is in cahoots with several commercial rafting trip operators. The department says any group which charges money for its services, as the camp does, must use a commercial outfitter. Individuals and casual groups who just want to have fun on the river can head out on their own, crash into Dimple Rock and drown for all DCNR cares. (DCNR recently refused to blow up Dimple Rock, responsible for 9 deaths since 1976) The camp says it conducted rafting trips on the Yough without injury for 30 years prior to the new regulations.
This is clearly an economic freedom issue that has nothing to do with religion. The Institute for Justice and its amen chorus at the Wall Street Journal have prominently labeled the camp a "Christian" summer camp, leaving the implication that Summer's Best Two Weeks is somehow being persecuted by Godless Democrats for its religious activities.
What's interesting is what isn't being said. The camp got written permission from the state to provide the trips in 1987 during the Casey Administration (Democratic). The rules requiring a commercial guide were issued in 2001 during either the Ridge or Schweiker Administrations (Republican), depending on what time of year they came out. Gov. Tom Ridge, as we all know, left after Sept. 11 to become the first Secretary of Homeland Security. Gov. Ed Rendell (Democratic) is in charge now, but can rightly argue he inherited this deal. What it smacks of is the same cozy, state-business deal-making that Republicans are famous for. Let's hope a happy settlement can be achieved that both protects children and allows camps which can demonstrate their ability to conduct a safe rafting trip to continue doing so.