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. 

Faith Based Advisor- Anti Catholic Bigot

This is the guy, Harry Knox, that Obama has selected to run the President's Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. The White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships is responsible for distributing federal money to religious non-profit and charitable organizations. Here are some quotes by him. To me it indicates he's anti-traditional family and an anti-Catholic bigot.

From the PBS interview broadcast on its Religion & Ethics Newsweekly show: “Responsible fatherhood offers us an immense opportunity to speak to a real need in the country.” ...

“It’ll be challenging to do that for instance in ways that are not dismissive of the tremendous gifts of single mothers; not to sort of hold a heteronormative view of fatherhood up as the only model.”

“For instance, 25 percent of gay male couples in the country are raising children – their own and other people’s.”

“So the challenge will be for all of us getting to know what fatherhood means for us, and how to talk about it in a way that is as inclusive as possible and empowering as possible.”

“One of the things I am suggesting on the council is that they look at mentoring processes that gay dads have developed to help each other be good fathers around the country.”

I'm disconcerted by the comments he made about the Pope. These comments were made in response to the Pope's statement on Aids and HIV prevention. For more on this comment http://windrosehotel.blogspot.com/2009/03/harvard-researchers-agree-with-pope.html

Knox:
“The Pope’s statement that condoms don’t help control the spread of HIV, but rather condoms increase infection rates, is hurting people in the name of Jesus.”

A bishop in Wyoming would not serve communion at Catholic Mass to a lesbian couple. Knox, on the HRC (Human Rights Campaign) Website April 6 2007 wrote: “In this holy Lenten season, it is immoral and insulting to Jesus to use the body and blood of Christ the reconciler as a weapon to silence free speech and demean the love of a committed, legally married couple.”

He said in an April 2007 interview with CNS News that the Pope is a "discredited leader because, primarily, his view on the condoms/AIDS statements. “The Pope needs to start telling the truth about condom use.” “We are eager to help him do that. Until he is willing to do that and able, he’s doing a great deal more harm than good – not just in Africa but around the world. It is endangering people’s lives.”

After being called out for these and other such statements, he makes this comment to Newsmax. "I love the Catholic Church and love my Catholic sisters and brothers very much,” he said. “I have a tremendous amount of respect for the Roman Catholic Church and for all the good that it does. I do think that we have a real disagreement about the role of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people, both in the role of the church and in the role of public service."

Spinning spinning spinning. By the way, he's a Protestant and a member of a very left wing denomination, the Church of Christ. He's also a member of the Interdenominational Conference of Liberation Congregations and Ministries. Liberation Theology anyone? How anyone can combine Marxist materialism and Christianity is a mystery to me. Maximum cognitive dissonance.

He should apologize to the Pope and Catholic Church and withdraw from his position.