Charity, Church, Stimulus Bill, Faith Based Initiative- An Unholy Alliance Between Church and State

GW Bush began the faith based initiative and I was dubious that it was a good idea. I’ve come to the conclusion it must be banned. Remove the legislation. We must not let the government have any say, none, in how religious institutions take care of people. Money from the government comes with strings. The strings are connected to hellish legislation, rules and controls.

Those create corruption. We don’t want secular State corruption infecting the Church. Some of the (non) “stimulus” money went to churches; they took it for themselves and not for charity works.  Castleton United Methodist Church in Indianapolis got “stimulus” and “faith based” money and bought a new heating and cooling system for their church. The Church of St. Laurence O'Toole in Laramie, WY, bought new windows for a school it runs. About $140 million has gone to religious organizations that can be accounted for.

Catholic Charities USA has received about $50 million so far. According to Recovery.gov, Catholic organizations and churches have received about $90 million, Protestant organizations and churches about $45 million, and Jewish synagogues and organizations about $6 million. Do any of these organizations think the government putting taxpayer money in will not come back to bite them?

There still are some conservatives saying, as they did when faith based legislation was introduced, they are afraid there would be religious discrimination that would send money to secular charities in disproportionate amounts. Not an issue. Religious organizations do get an equal share, and secular governmental controls come with it. That’s a threat to freedom of religion.

Some rules: If getting government dollars religious organizations may not force recipients to participate in explicit religious activity. I thought one of the primary missions of the Church was to introduce and bring people to God. If one teaches and talks about God, Christ, the Church, it must be done separately from the charity service. I’m sure there are other rules sitting quietly on the guidelines for more government control in the future. The only religious leaders I’m finding supporting all this are Liberals. This is a scary day when I have to agree with the Statist, Secularist, anti Christian bigot leader of  Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, Barry Lynn, though for different reasons. He’s anti religion (even though he claims to be a minister) and pro government, and is against this because it violates his separation of Church and State misunderstanding.

I’m against the Faith Based Initiative and using “stimulus” money in religious organizations because the government will use it to control. A lot of the money from this is being funneled through various government environmental agencies for “green projects”; weather proofing churches and community environmental programs. What does this have to do with reaching out to the poor, to prisoners, the sick and dying? Nothing, except to get religious organizations to do the bidding of the State.

We get tax free status from the government. That should be the financial basis, along with tithing, for charitable works. Billions of dollars here at home and abroad help billions of the suffering. Anytime government gets involved we will get all the controls and corruption that comes with it. We have enough sin in our own house to deal with; we don’t need government intervention to exacerbate that reality.