Obama's Faith-Based Move

Joe Loconte has an important article at NRO on the whole "Faith-Based" program of Bush and the recent comments of President Obama, who intends to continue something like it in the new White House. How much like it? That's the question, and Loconte gives some interesting background with comments. I have not studied this issue, but my caution admittedly lies in the direction of suspicion of government in general (Trust, but verify? I live in Crook County, after all), so my preference would be to support faith-based social programs, assistance, etc a bit more at arm's length from The District: e.g., structure tax codes to increase local charitable support to local charities helping people in your own town. Loconte is worried about a new direction here. I have to say that everything I've ever seen about community organizing here in Chicago makes me read him very carefully. Who said anything, you may ask, about community organizing? Skeptical me, I am just reading the new revised title of the initiative, White House Office for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, with the eye of someone who has lived in Rahm Emmanuel's 5th District (formerly Rod Blagojevich's), Alderman Richard Mell's Ward (Mell is Blagojevich's father-in-law), and Mayor Richard J. Daley's City for many years now.

Comments

[Benighted Savage]

Our federal government -- is there anything it can't do?

[Stuart Koehl]

>>>Our federal government -- is there anything it can't do?<<<

It's almost as versatile as Global Warming (um, I mean "Climate Change").

[Benighted Savage]

Didn't Barry Goldwater say that "A government that is big enough to give you all you want is big enough to take it all away"? Or was it someone else?

It's nice to know that Bush's faith-based initiatives did some good. I just hope it hasn't opened a Pandora's box of fedgov control of religious charities.

[Jonathan]

Savage, you may be thinking of Lawrence Reed when he says, "Government has nothing to give anybody except what it first takes from somebody, and a government that's big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take away everything you've got." That's #6 of his Seven Principles of Sound Public Policy. Perhaps Goldwater used a similar phrasing earlier; I'm not sure.

[Benighted Savage]

Thanks. I've also seen a very similar statement attributed to Thomas Jefferson!

[Ethan C.]

That's too snappy-sounding for the 18th century.

[Judy K. Warner]

This is a somewhat different issue from the one raised by Jim above, and one worth attention:

Opponents of Bush’s faith-based initiative, however, argue that government support changes the rules of the game: No group taking federal money should be exempt from anti-discrimination laws. Democratic leaders have repeatedly compared the hiring policies of religious charities to the racist bigotry of the Jim Crow South. As a lobbyist for Catholic Charities complained to me after a contentious congressional hearing: “I’ve never seen anything like this during my 20 years in Washington.”

Under the Obama administration, we may see more of this style of politics, not less. During the 2008 presidential race, Obama explicitly denounced the hiring exemption for religious charities. Earlier this month he ordered the Justice Department to write a new policy on the issue. Joshua DuBois, who heads the White House faith office, promises that the administration will “have a keener eye toward the separation of church and state.” A decision striking down the hiring rights of congregations and faith-based groups, however, would accomplish just the opposite: It would empower the state to force them to abandon their religious identity, the definition of secularization.

The answer is not to take government money, but that's easier said than done for some charities. It makes me wonder just what Obama means when he says he is a Christian.

[Benighted Savage]

Judy K. Warner writes:

>>> The answer is not to take government money, but that's easier said than done for some charities. <<<

To rephrase my first and second posts: "Our federal government -- is there anything it can't infiltrate?

>>> It makes me wonder just what Obama means when he says he is a Christian. <<<

This is doubtless a rhetorical question, but perhaps we could answer it if we were to devote some time to reading the Black Liberation theology which informs Obama's (former?) mentor, the most Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Or take a closer look at the United Church of Christ, the protestant denomination that Wright's Trinity Church is part of.

According to that sometimes reliable source Wikipedia:

"The United Church of Christ is in a relationship of full communion with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Presbyterian Church (USA), and the Reformed Church in America through a formal declaration known as the Formula of Agreement, with the Union Evangelischer Kirchen (Union of Evangelical Churches) in Germany, and with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) through an ecumenical partnership."

The UCC has also strongly supported legalized abortion (since 1971), and has supported both the FOCA and PBA.

This tells me a lot about what kind of Christian he is.