890
Souter, J., dissenting
tions we have made. First, we have barred aid with actual religious content, which would obviously run afoul of the ban on the government's participation in religion, Everson, 330 U. S., at 16; Walz, 397 U. S., at 668; cf. Lemon, 403 U. S., at 617 (discussing variable ideological and religious character of religious teachers compared to fixed content of books). In cases where we have permitted aid, we have regularly characterized it as "neutral" in the sense (noted supra, at 879- 881) of being without religious content. See, e. g., Tilton, 403 U. S., at 688 (characterizing buildings as "religiously neutral"); Zobrest, 509 U. S., at 10 (describing translator as "neutral service"); Agostini, 521 U. S., at 232 (discussing need to assess whether nature of aid was "neutral and nonideological"). See also ante, at 820 (plurality opinion) (barring aid with religious content).10
Second, we have long held government aid invalid when circumstances would allow its diversion to religious education. The risk of diversion is obviously high when aid in the form of government funds makes its way into the coffers of religious organizations, and so from the start we have understood the Constitution to bar outright money grants of aid to religion.11 See Everson, 330 U. S., at 16 ("[The State]
10 I agree with the plurality that the Establishment Clause absolutely prohibits the government from providing aid with clear religious content to religious, or for that matter nonreligious, schools. Ante, at 822-825. The plurality, however, misreads our precedent as focusing only on affirmatively religious content. At the very least, a building, for example, has no such content, but we have squarely required the government to ensure that no publicly financed building be diverted to religious use. Tilton v. Richardson, 403 U. S. 672, 681-684 (1971). See also Bowen v. Kendrick, 487 U. S. 589, 623 (1988) (O'Connor, J., concurring) ("[A]ny use of public funds to promote religious doctrines violates the Establishment Clause").
11 We have similarly noted that paying salaries of parochial school teachers creates too much of a risk that such support will aid the teaching of religion, striking down such programs because of the need for pervasive monitoring that would be required. See Lemon, 403 U. S., at 619 ("We do not assume, however, that parochial school teachers will be unsuccessful
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