Judge's sentence includes faith-based book on temptation

Judge's sentence includes faith-based book on temptation

Thanks to the order of a Pennsylvania judge, a convicted sex offender will have to read a Christian psychologist's book on overcoming sexual temptation as part of his sentence -- much to the chagrin of the American Civil Liberties Union, which has criticized the order because it involves what it calls a "religious book." But a pro-family attorney disagrees the law would call that a violation of the defendant's Constitutional rights.

The New Jersey Express-Times reports last month that Northampton County Judge Anthony Beltrami ordered 27-year-old Bret Lepore to read a book by Steven Arterburn, founder and chairman of New Life Ministries, and write a report, in addition to receiving one to two years in prison and five years probation. Lepore, who had admitted to having sexual relations with two 14-year-old girls he met on MySpace.com, pleaded guilty to statutory assault and corruption of minors.

"Women are nothing more than sex objects to you," the newspaper reports Beltrami telling Lepore in court. "You use them and throw them on the scrapheap." The book the judge has incorporated into Lepore's sentence - Every Man's Battle: Winning the War on Sexual Temptation One Victory at a Time - contains religious content as part of its treatment of the topic.

An attorney with the ACLU of Pennsylvania acknowledges that recommending the book is within Judge Beltrami's power, but that he cannot order Lepore to "read a religious book." According to the Express-Times, ACLU attorney Mary Catherine Roper compares Lepore's sentence to one requiring a defendant to attend Alcoholics Anonymous, which has a religious theme, as part of alcohol-abuse counseling.

But attorney Steve Crampton of the American Family Association Center for Law & Policy disagrees with the ACLU's assessment of the issues in play. "The book has religious content, but merely reading a religious book ... doesn't seem to me to rise to the level of an infringement of his constitutional right to freedom of conscience," he observes.

According to the Christian attorney, that is because it does not seem to be any different than public schoolchildren who are made to read non-religious and liberal educational material that their parents object to, but which the law says is legal for schools to assign. Crampton explains that in this case, Judge Beltrami simply appears to be recommending something that has proven to be effective in helping men deal with sexual temptation.

"It's one thing to prohibit a government official -- in this case, a state court judge -- from promoting religion purely for the sake of religion," he says. "[but] what this judge appears to be doing is actually trying to help this man who can't seem to control his sexual urges by recommending a program that happens to have religious elements in it."

Crampton says he assumes the judge is recommending the book "not because it's religious, but because it works." The book by Arterburn and New Life Ministries is based on material featured in regional workshops conducted around the country which help men deal with sexual temptation.