Bush's 'Faith based Initiative' programs (i.e Fundamentalist Christian programs)

[Angry Mollusk]

I always took Bush's jibberjabber about the need to fund 'faith based initiative programs' as a code that means CHRISTIAN based programs.
I'm an athiest, and the idea of tax dollars used to fund Christian programs is pretty offensive to me-

Has any funding aimed at faith based programs gone toward NON Christian programs, or has such funding always gone to christian programs? Have Jewish, Muslim, Hindu or Pagan programs been covered?

I had a heated argument with a Christian nut who asserted america is a 'Christian nation', hence funding should only go toward Christian programs.

If Bush wants the government and Christian church to be so cozy, its high time we tax the churches.

[Ian David]

1. There was a good study on this somewhere. The answer won't surprise you...

BLOG | Posted 01/24/2005 @ 10:55am
The Faith-Based Fraud
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/outrage?pid=2145

Evangelical Exposé: Bush's Faith-Based Fraud
Posted by Evan Derkacz at 10:10 AM on October 19, 2006.
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/43225/


Faith-based' fraud: Duplicity and deceit in the name of religion
Church & State, Sep 2001
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3944/is_200109/ai_n8977610

GOOD GOD! FAITH-BASED SCAMS PROLIFERATE, RAISE QUESTIONS ABOUT FEDERAL, LOCAL FUNDING INITIATIVES
Web Posted: August 13, 2001
http://www.atheists.org/flash.line/faith34.htm

David Kuo: Faith-Based Initiatives A Scam
by pastordan
Thu Oct 12, 2006 at 07:58:22 AM PST
http://www.streetprophets.com/storyonly/2006/10/12/105822/14

Bush 'Faith-Based' Initiative Was Used For GOP Campaigns, Former White House Official Charges In New Book
Thursday, October 12, 2006
White House Faith-Based Office Is 'Deplorable Sham' And Should Be Shut Down, Says AU's Lynn
http://www.au.org/site/News2?abbr=pr&page=NewsArticle&id=8621

[Johonny]

6. that was pretty much my understanding

The money was going to groups that turn around and donate the money to targeted Republican campaigns.

[Ian David]

7. Evangelical Xians, The Moonies, and The $cientologists. n/t

[moobu2]

2. payola for political support is all faith based programs are.

Tax the bastards if they get involved in politics in any way whatsoever.

[Hamlette]

8. and then they are forced to keep the GOP in office to keep the money coming

that's all part of the get out the vote campaign of the GOP. churches will lose money if the dems are in power.

[fasttense]

3. And the dancing supremes ruled for their masters that

we can't hold the government accountable for supporting fundamentalists Christianity. Even though the Constitution states: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion."

I guess since it was the executive branch that has established fundamentalists Christianity as our country's national religion, the Constitution doesn't really apply.

I want money to build a temple to Athena, oh, wait, wrong god.

[Ian David]

4. "no direct federal grants from his program had gone to a non-Christian religious group."

Former director Jim Towey admitted in 2004 that "no direct federal grants from his program had gone to a non-Christian religious group."

The separation of church and state may be increasingly difficult to protect, since few federal agencies are monitoring faith-based organizations for compliance with the safeguards, according to a June 2006 report from the Government Accountability Office. Four of the major federal agencies refuse to include references to the safeguards in their monitoring tools, and have stated that FBOs should not be singled out for greater oversight on the basis of their religious affiliations (GAO 2006:29,55<1>). Former director Jim Towey admitted in 2004 that "no direct federal grants from his program had gone to a non-Christian religious group."<2> In June, 2006, U.S. District Judge Robert W. Pratt ruled that a faith based-program at a Newton, Iowa prison called InnerChange, operated by Charles Colson's Prison Fellowship Ministries, unconstitutionally used tax money for a religious program that gave special privileges to inmates who accepted its evangelical Christian teachings and terms. “For all practical purposes," Judge Pratt said, "the state has literally established an Evangelical Christian congregation within the walls of one its penal institutions, giving the leaders of that congregation, i.e., InnerChange employees, authority to control the spiritual, emotional, and physical lives of hundreds of Iowa inmates.”

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_House_Office_of_Faith-Based_and_Community_Initiatives


Actually, this isn't entirely accurate.

A fair amount of faith-based money has been given to The Church of $cientolgy's anti-drug "education" efforts in public schools.

I call this "The Moment When The Faith-Based Initiative Jumped The Couch."

[BOSSHOG]

5. On a similar note

the new governor of Louisiana who limbaugh would love to sleep with is a fantastic Catholic with the most wonderful of values, he's so much better then the rest of us, just ask him, wants to give large tax credits to citizens so they can send their kids to private (read Catholic schools.) He thinks every parent should have the right to send their kids to whatever school they want. I expect him to announce that every citizen should have the right to worship in his church.

[Echo In Light]

9. The Constitution Restoration Act

Introducing The Constitution Restoration Act
Say Hello To Taliban America And Goodbye To Godless Judges, Courts And Law
by W. David Kubiak April 03, 2005

Tired of waiting for the Second Coming to enforce Christ's rule on Earth? Fortunately, so is your Congress and they know how to "bring it on."

Just when you thought the corporatist/Christian Coalition had milked the 9/11 "surprise" for all it was worth in powers, profits and votes, we regret to report that you may have to think again. Just in case you've briefly fallen behind on your rightwing mailing lists, you might have missed the March 3rd filing of Senate bill S. 520 and House version is H.R. 1070, AKA the "Constitution Restoration Act" (CRA).

In the worshipful words of the Conservative Caucus, this historic legislation will "RESTORE OUR CONSTITUTION!", mainly by barring ANY federal court or judge from ever again reviewing "any matter to the extent that relief is sought against an entity of Federal, State, or local government, or against an officer or agent of Federal, State, or local government (whether or not acting in official or personal capacity), concerning that entity's, officer's, or agent's acknowledgment of God as the sovereign source of law, liberty, or government."

In other words, the bill ensures that God's divine word (and our infallible leaders' interpretation thereof) will hereafter trump all our pathetic democratic notions about freedom, law and rights -- and our courts can't say a thing. This, of course, will take "In God We Trust" to an entirely new level, because soon He (and His personally anointed political elite) will be all the legal recourse we have left.

This is not a joke, a test, or a fit of libertarian paranoia. The CRA already has 28 sponsors in the House and Senate, and a March 20 call to lead sponsor Sen. Richard Shelby's office assures us that "we have the votes for passage." This is a highly credible projection as Bill Moyers observes in his 3/24/05 "Welcome to Doomsday" piece in the New York Review of Books: "The corporate, political, and religious right's hammerlock... extends to the US Congress. Nearly half of its members before the election-231 legislators in all (more since the election)-are backed by the religious right... Forty-five senators and 186 members of the 108th Congress earned 80 to 100 percent approval ratings from the most influential Christian Right advocacy groups."

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=7569

[bobthedrummer]

10. Tommy Thompson's Wisconsin was the epicenter of this-it was hidden in "privatization"

I'm a Christian opposed to the RW, fascism and any human being's version of theocracy.

You might want to review this post from August 15, 2007 that has many links and facts about the Wisconsin origins of The Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives as well as the networking of "privatization".

"'Neoconservatism' and how Wisconsinites worked alliances"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=186x21683#21874

[Irishonly]

11. I recommend reading TEmpting Faith

David Kuo worked on the faith based initiatives program. I could only read a few pages at a time because I would get so angry. I think there may have been one Jewish organization that received a pittance. The program mostly promised money and never delivered.