Weekend Blog Sampler – Barack Obama’s faith-based dustup

To truly be successful, this initiative must utilize the unique resources and identity of the faith community, while at the same time recognizing the indispensible role that government and public policy must play in tackling the root causes of poverty. truthout

But at bottom, the faith-based initiative, no matter the clunky name Obama affixes to it (Council for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships), will amount to the same old government subsidy for religious groups. The Progressive

It’s nice that he’s specifically saying there will be restrictions, that the money can’t be used in programs that discriminate, and it must be for secular purposes, but he’s still propping up a religious middleman between government aid and the people, and that’s a tool that will be used to proselytize indirectly, even if they don’t simply flout the rules. This is a bad idea.  Pharyngula

The Office of Faith Based Initiatives was begun under Bill Clinton’s presidency. Only under Bush, which is to say Karl Rove, was it turned into a politically divisive campaign tool intentionally used to create hate between those of fundamentalist Christian faith and secular community service volunteers. Where is the love in that!  ChristianDemocrat.us

By all appearances, Obama’s vision is consistent with what Bush’s plan would have been, if Bush cared about constitutional law, the interests of taxpayers, the rights of families in need, and the integrity of religious institutions. From Obama’s speech  The Carpetbagger Report

…how could faith-based hiring and firing possibly be restricted to the non-taxpayer funded parts of these group’s activities? This does not seem feasible and would require far more oversight that I’d expect the federal government to actually enforce.  Atheist Revolution

Religion does best when left alone by the government. Ministries should be supported by private donations, not public funds. If religious charities seek public money, they need to be prepared to play by the same rules that everyone else does.  The Hill