Sunday, July 06, 2008

Obama's Faith-Based Cure - OH MY GOD

Barack Obama has been attempting to grab the moral high ground and winning the vote of those ill-informed religious folks by promising to expand  on Bush's (also misdirected) faith-based initiative.

Obama calms fears about this program by stating:

“If you get a federal grant, you can’t use that grant money to proselytize to the people you help, and you can’t discriminate against them — or against the people you hire — on the basis of their religion...Federal dollars that go directly to churches, temples and mosques can only be used on secular programs.”

Can someone tell me what a secular program is in a church?

Feeding the poor? Nope, commanded by Jesus.

Clothing the naked? Nope, commanded by Jesus.

Caring for the least of these? Nope, commanded by Jesus.

Caring for the sick? Visiting those in jail? Caring for widows?  Damn it, Jesus got to those too. 

Make no mistake what this means.  It means turning your church into another agent of the state to give strictly regulated compassion to those who are enslaved by a government that refuses to let people assume risk.  This does little more than produce the unintended consequence of enslaving people by doing for them what they could do for themselves.  All this is done through money taken not from donations but from YOU through the agents of government force and the power to tax.  This is un-American and a terrible idea.

My local church is one filled with people of all walks of life and backgrounds.  In the last year they have built small cottages in Uganda for eight orphaned kids to live with a caretaker, they have roofed houses for the poor and have fed countless people who do nothing more than ask for food.  These are not secular programs.  They are the manifestation of changed lives that try to love people and turn no one away who truly needs help.  Oh yeah, they distribute bibles too...big whoop.

You may say, "Yeah, but not all churches seem so nice like yours."  To that I say that I agree and all the better reason to keep tax payer's money away from all religious groups.

From my view the "religious left" is just as wacky as those on the right.

Hope you all had a good Independence Day...I did.

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