Obama Should Appoint A Gay To Head Up the Faith-Based Initiatives Program

[stopbush]

That is, if he plans on continuing that misguided bush giveaway.

[CAVU]

1. I'll volunteer. For a phenomenal fee.

:D

[yardwork]

LOL! If you need any assistance, give me a call!

My fees are reasonable....very reasonable!

[ixion]

2. so-called "faith-based" initiatives violate the Separation of Church and State

and should be disbanded.

[stopbush]

4. Agreed, but Obama said he would continue it.

I think it should go bye-bye, but that's just me and the others who respect the Constitution.

[Lasher]

9. What the hell, it's just a piece of paper.

I'm disappointed the Office of Faith-Based Initiatives will not get the old heave-ho. But that's OK, I'll still be a big fan of Obama's if he doesn't govern exactly like I want in every single detail.

[Donnachaidh]

3. now THAT would be perfect! n/t

[progressoid]

5. Gay and an atheist. :)

To be completely impartial to the different "faiths". :evilgrin:

[robinlynne]

6. I vote with you!!!!!!!!!

[SoCalDem]

7. NO MORE FAITH-BASED "agencies" in the federal govt,..PLEASE

In fact, I would prefer to have MOST tax relief bennies stripped from religious enterprises.. These scoundrels use their "faith" to hide behind, so they can rake in BILLIONS of untaxed revenues, which they use for POLITICAL witch hunts against anyone they don't happen to "like"..

Churches should be able to deduct the cost of a reasonable salary for their preacher & a modest staff..and perhaps a tax free status for the actual footprint of the CHURCH & residence of the minister..but that's ALL..

[geckosfeet]

8. A gay pro-choice atheist.

[luvspeas]

10. I work in this field...

And it's faith-based and COMMUNITY initiatives. No, it's not illegal. They explicitly expect a faith-based organization to keep their religious issues separate from the services. They also expect churches to get 501c3 status or work with a 501c3 to be eligible for finding. So basically, it's a bait and switch game to the faith-based groups. They have to become NPO's before they can get funding. I actually wish they would expand this program and call it what it really is, so that more non-faith-based NPO's understand that this money is available for them too. If the program were expanded, it could fit nicely with Obama's community service initiatives.

Someone affiliated with an MCC church would be a pretty amazing and gay-friendly choice. They also do tons of community service.

That said, there are tons of abuses to this program too. I headed up a regional distribution for a program that gave out money to churches mentoring children of prisoners that gives away thousands of dollars with almost no questions asked. The feds biggest worry was that they wanted to make the program look like it was working, so they put pressure on us to just get the money out there, then later, get more money out there. It was nearly impossible to find organizations that fit the criteria for the money, so I busted my ass, but I know other coordinators that just let things slide and gave out money they knew was not going to the people who needed it and the feds absolutely did not care. In fact those people got the credit, and I got shit for not pulling in the numbers. Everybody knew it too.

[laconicsax]

14. And the requirement to keep religion out of it is enforced how?

[luvspeas]

17. Here's what they say...

If you have a program being funded by the feds, say you are providing meals to homeless men, you can give them the food at the church, but your staff, and everybody else involved cannot mention religion in the same location. What they can do, is announce that a bible meeting (or goat-slaughtering, or whatever) will be taking place in the other room, in ten minutes for anyone that wants to participate, but those activities cannot be funded using any monies from the feds and they can't deny anyone the meal services because they don't attend the goat slaughtering (or whatever).

I know, I know, it's a bunch of bullshit, and I doubt if they monitor at all. But that could be something built into the funding, along with providing the service away from the house of worship. All's I'm saying is that there's more to work with here than most people think. And seriously, there are faith-based groups out there who really help people, like in prisoner reentry (what a fucked up name that is BTW). Believe me, there are faith-based groups out there whose mission is to help people without proselytizing,and it would be a shame if they went away. They need to be pulled into the fold (to use a cheezus term), and encouraged to go about things in a fair and unbiased way.

[LisaM]

11. Or in the alternative....

cut the faith-based initiative program.

[luvspeas]

15. If you cut out the term faith-based...

And just called it Community Initiatives, it would describe exactly what it is, since churches are part of the community, no?. To be fair, there are churches out there doing really good and important work with very difficult populations. I have no problem with them in the mix for potential funding, so long as they play by the same rules. That's basically how the FBCI program works, with the exception that churches can discriminate in hiring to people of the same faith. They say that's because of another ruling, but I think that should be abolished.

[msongs]

12. no more faith based government offices and activities thanks nt

[laconicsax]

13. Obama should just abolish the Faith-Based Initiative.

I know he won't, but he should.

[Myrina]

16. "Faith Based" needs to just GO AWAY.

Get someone else's faith outta my government, and all that.