Have American Judges heard of the separation of Church & State?
Sorry, the headline was a bit misleading and I should have given some background on the case.
The man was given a choice between 30 days in jail or attending a predominantly black church for 6 Sundays. The man chose to go to the church. Another article stated that the judge decided to offer the man the choice of attending church because he knew if this man was sent to jail he would probably just get involved with a racist group and would learn nothing from the situation. Since he was given a choice, I don't see a problem with it.
The only controversy I saw was that the man attended services at the Kingdom Hall of JWs. I believe it was mentioned that his lawyer may have had some JW ties. Several people, including myself, wrote to the judge to express our dismay over this man attending the KH. I don't know if our letters made a difference or if the man just decided that the KH sucked and didn't want to go back. Either way the outcome was good. Hopefully, he learned his lesson and will be more tolerant in the future.