Report on Bush’s Faith-Based Changes

Researchers at the Rockefeller Institute of Government in Albany, N.Y. have compiled an interesting study on President Bush's various faith-based initiatives. They specifically focus on how Bush has worked behind the backs of legislators - which is curious, considering how often he complains about judges working behind the backs of legislators.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports:

"Religious organizations are now involved in government-encouraged activities ranging from building strip malls for economic improvement to promoting child car seats,'' the study states. ... Taken together, the report finds that the Bush programs "mark a major shift in the constitutional separation of church and state. Few if any presidents in recent history have reached as deeply into or as broadly across the government to implement a presidential initiative administratively,'' said institute director Richard Nathan.

Bush administration officials say the faith- based initiative is meant to merely "level the playing field" so churches and other religious groups can compete for billions of dollars the federal government hands out each year through government social service contracts. ... Religious groups such as Catholic Charities USA and Lutheran Social Services have long gotten government funding to feed the poor, heal the sick and house the homeless. But they were required to set up separate nonprofit agencies to run those programs and to operate under strict rules that forbid them to proselytize or limit hiring to employees of a particular faith or religious denomination.

Anne Farris, a co-author of the report, said President Bush had promoted his personal beliefs "both in ideology and deeds -- in the workings of the federal government." ... The report also cites newly revised Department of Labor rules that exempt religious organizations from provisions of the Civil Rights Act that forbid discrimination in employment based on religion, It also notes changes in federal regulations that now allow churches to use federal funds to renovate buildings that are used for both social services and religious worship.

If Bush’s faith-based goals are realized, then the government will become intimately involved in the financing of programs that discriminate widely on any basis that someone can claim religious reason for discriminating with. People seeking government services they have a right to may be discriminated against - and, if not, they will only receive those services on the condition that they accept being proselytized to. Those interested in a job helping others will be discriminated against and forced to submit to tests or practices of religious orthodoxy as a condition of employment.

Again, your taxes will be funding all of this. One would think that if people wanted to fund social services that discriminate on the basis of religious beliefs, they would contribute their own money to the groups that discriminate in ways they approve of. Why should they involuntarily contribute money to religious groups that not only discriminate in ways they don’t approve of, but may in fact discriminate against them? Because it’s a condition of citizenship now in Bush’s Radical Religious Revolution.

Read More:

• Separation of Church and State 101
• Church and State News
• Faith-Based Programs
• Religious Right
• Religious Right News
• Christian Extremism