The Blog of the Coalition for Secular Government

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Friday, February 5, 2010 Facebook Group: President Obama: Close the White House Office of Faith-based Initiatives By Diana Hsieh @ 10:00 AM Here's a Facebook group I can support: President Obama: Close the White House Office of Faith-based Initiatives. The description reads: Actually its current name is "The White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships", but that would have made the group's name too long. From www.whitehouse.gov: "The White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships within the Domestic Policy Council works to form partnerships between the Federal Government and faith-based and neighborhood organizations to more effectively serve Americans in need." Whether giving religious charities better access to government money makes them more effective or not is beside the point. The point is, it involves government in religion, and religion in government, and that is unconstitutional. The religious left -- of which Obama is definitely a part (see here and here) -- is no better than the religious right. Sure, they differ somewhat in their concrete agendas. Yet both groups seek to shove religion down our throats at the point of a gun. The persistence of the Office of Faith-based Initiatives from the Bush administration to the Obama administration shows that the religious left is more than willing to capitalize on the religious right's power-grabs. That's a common -- and dismaying -- trend in politics today. Labels: Faith-Based Initiatves E-mail Diana Hsieh    PermaLink ()    Comments      Wednesday, February 18, 2009 Jesus On the Dole By Ari @ 12:01 AM Reposted: Apparently God needs more welfare. Via Diana Hsieh: Declaring that "there is a force for good greater than government," President Barack Obama on Thursday established a White House office of faith-based initiatives with a broader mission than the one overseen by his Republican predecessor. The article discusses the problem of tax-funded religious groups hiring on religious grounds. But that is merely a peripheral problem. The gigantic problem is simply the forcible transfer of funds to faith-based groups. Any such program inherently violates the rights of conscience and property of those who do not wish to finance such organizations. Obviously the other major problem is that the expanded program will bring religious organizations more under the power and influence of federal politicians. He who pays the piper calls the tune. The bipartisan faith-based initiatives threaten to undermine the separation of church and state that has significantly contributed to the relative liberty of the West. Everyone who cares about religious liberty, believers and nonbelievers alike, must criticize Obama's effort at every opportunity. Faith-based welfare should not be expanded, it should not be reformed, it should be completely eliminated, in the name of liberty. Labels: Faith-Based Initiatves, Religion E-mail Ari    PermaLink ()    Comments      Monday, January 12, 2009 Obama on Faith-Based Initiatives By Diana Hsieh @ 12:01 AM The Christian Science Monitor recently published an informative article on what Obama is and is not likely to do to change the Bush Administration's "faith-based initiatives": Obama's likely likely to retool Bush's faith-based initiative. The whole program ought to be scrapped, but that's not what is going to happen. Instead, the merger of church and state will continue, albeit likely with some greater restrictions on the churches -- for now. Labels: Faith-Based Initiatves E-mail Diana Hsieh    PermaLink ()    Comments      Tuesday, September 9, 2008 Faith-Based Obama By Ari @ 12:01 AM (Reposted:) In his August 18 article, Jim Towey, former director of the White House Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives, writes that "Obama wants to abandon President Bush's -- and President Clinton's -- efforts to protect the right to hire on a religious basis of faith-based charities that provide taxpayer-funded social services." What are these alleged rights? Towey thinks recipients of federal dollars should be able to "hire on a religious basis," yet "[f]or decades, religious charities have had to knuckle under to the directives of the federal government if they wanted public money." Religious groups do not have any right to other people's money redistributed by force. Whether or not faith-based groups discriminate on the basis of religion when hiring, they should not receive a single cent of tax money. To forcibly redistribute money to religious groups from those who do not wish to fund them violates the latter group's rights of property and conscience. Towey writes, "Planned Parenthood receives bundles of federal money and hires only the like-minded. Why are faith groups held to a different standard?" Towey's argument is disingenuous; there is no "different standard." Planned Parenthood does not discriminate on the basis of religion, and the fact that opponents of abortion choose not to work there is their own choice. Regardless, the relevant standard is that government ought neither promote nor hinder religion. Spending tax dollars for faith-based purposes clearly violates this standard. I agree that it's wrong for Planned Parenthood to receive tax dollars. But the first wrong does not justify state support of religious organizations. Labels: Faith-Based Initiatves, Politics E-mail Ari    PermaLink ()    Comments