Placer County allocated taxpayer dollars to a private Christian college. That must end
Faith-based organizations have provided valuable and vital food and support to Placer County’s most vulnerable residents. The Auburn Interfaith Food Closet, for instance, provided over 204,000 meals to over 8,000 families in 2018 alone. But using taxpayer dollars to support faith-based organizations in their mission to spread the gospel is crossing a clear line.
In an 1802 letter, Thomas Jefferson wrote that the newly formed nation should “make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, thus building a wall of separation between Church & State.”
Defining that wall has been debated in America ever since. Over the last several decades, the lines between church and state have become increasingly blurred, thanks to conservative-leaning Supreme Courts.
This blurring can be seen locally through the decisions of the Placer County Board of Supervisors, who have repeatedly given public funds to William Jessup University, Rocklin’s private Christian college.
The board has also given money to Campus Life Connection, a subset of Youth for Christ, whose mission is to “build relationships with young people to introduce them to Christ.”
By choosing to financially align themselves with WJU and Campus Life, the board has made it known that an organization’s association with Christianity plays a favorable role in their decision-making process. Why is that important? Because these officials are supposed to represent everyone, not just Christians.
Breaking down funding
Since 2020, the Board of Supervisors has voted to give William Jessup money on three different occasions. One appropriation, in the amount of $5,000, went to the university’s Institute for Biodiversity and the Environment for research on the county’s burrowing owl population. Last June, the county approved two separate amounts, for a collective $2,250, to help fund a gala held by the university which raises money for student scholarships.
Notably, WJU has been accused of homophobia by a former student.
The money given to both Campus Life and William Jessup come from the board’s “revenue sharing” funds. According to a Placer County spokesperson, organizations and nonprofits in the community apply for these funds, and applications are voted on by the board. Each supervisor has an annual revenue sharing amount of $20,000. Revenue sharing funding comes from the County’s General Fund, which is made up of several revenue sources including various taxes.
Despite several attempts to contact them, members of the Board of Supervisors and officials from Campus Life and William Jessup did not issue comments by the time of publication.
District 3 Supervisor Jim Holmes, representing Loomis, Rocklin and North Auburn, requested that revenue sharing funds be given to WJU on all three occasions. District 2 Supervisor Robert Weygandt, representing parts of Lincoln and Rocklin, requested funds on two of those occasions.
The last 18 months have been financially precarious for almost everyone, and students need financial support. But the last thing our county should be doing right now is giving public money to a private university, given that private schools already receive funding from tax deductions and contributions from private donors. William Jessup does not need our money.
In April and March of 2020, the board gave Campus Life Connection a combined $3,000. In June of this year, the county gave the organization an additional $3,250. This money was meant to help fund anti-bullying workshops like Point Break, which bills itself as faith-neutral. Ultimately, however, these programs are operated by Campus Life and Youth for Christ staff, which sets out to “partner with God (and others) by stepping into a young person’s life at pivotal moments.”
Weygandt, the current chair of the board, requested two that revenue share funds be given to Campus Life on two of these occasions.
Religious freedom
By providing funding to these groups, our county is participating — whether directly or not — in proselytization. That sets a disturbing precedent at odds with core values of religious freedom.
Revenue sharing applications are included in the board’s consent agenda, meaning the board does not typically discuss revenue sharing during public meetings. Unless an item on the consent agenda is pulled for discussion, the public doesn’t truly have a chance to weigh in on how these funds are allocated.
There is legal precedent for giving government money to religious institutions. In Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue and Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Inc. v. Comer, the Supreme Court ruled that the government cannot refuse to give religious schools certain scholarships or grants that have been made available to secular schools.
Revenue sharing funds are meant to be allocated in a manner that benefits the community — either a supervisor’s own district or the county as a whole. The definition of these funds is as follows: “In approving the … appropriations, the Placer County Board of Supervisors makes the finding that each and every approved contribution serves a public purpose by promoting the general welfare of the County and its inhabitants; therefore, the County benefits.”
Homophobia accusation
In its flawed reasoning for giving funds to William Jessup, the board credits the college with being the only private university in Placer County and providing higher education that has impacted the community since 2004. Supervisors Weygandt and Holmes, who represent Rocklin, where WJU is located, helped the university secure county funds. In doing so, both have helped support an institution accused of homophobia.
Anthony Villarreal, a former William Jessup student, accused the university of expelling him in 2013 because he is gay. At the time, the university said it does not discriminate against students based on their sexual orientation. When university staff discovered Villarreal was gay and living with his boyfriend, he was told by an interim dean to find a new living arrangement and seek counseling.
It’s completely unjustifiable — and entirely inappropriate — that funds are being exchanged between William Jessup and Placer County. But this didn’t happen in a vacuum.
In June, Roseville refused to fly the Pride flag during Pride Month, fearing the precedent it would set with government speech. Meanwhile, young members of the LGBTQ community face bullying by peers and even teachers and struggle to find acceptance in the county.
In an area that has struggled to accept its LGBTQ community, diverting public funds to a private college accused of homophobia sends a clear message about who is truly welcome in Placer County.
Separation of church and state
Campus Life, to its credit, has been successful in taking its Point Break program to campuses around the region. However, I find it hard to believe that there are no secular organizations in the larger Sacramento area offering effective anti-bullying workshops. I also wonder if non-Christian students choose not to participate in Point Break — a program meant to bring the campus together — because of its affiliation with Youth for Christ.
Ultimately, the Placer County Board of Supervisors should fund faith-based organizations only when faith is taken out of the equation. The board has, for example, approved revenue sharing requests from EveryOne Matters Ministries, which provides shelter and support to the local unhoused population, and the First United Methodist Church of Loomis’ food pantry. These are examples of critical support services for those in need where faith does not play a large and complicating factor.
But some members of the board have shown themselves to be selective on which individual freedoms and constitutional rights they support. Weygandt, who requested revenue share funding for WJU and Campus Life on several occasions in the past two years, said recently that the Placer County Sheriff’s Office should not be spending resources to enforce state COVID-19 guidelines. Weygandt told ABC 10 that the public should be able to “make decisions themselves.”
In providing public funds to WJU and Campus Life, the board is making choices with both religious implications and consequential value judgments exclusionary to those who are not Christian.
The Board of Supervisors must untangle itself from associations with religious groups to prove that it is the neutral, impartial governing body its constituents demand and deserve.