Faith-based Charities

It turns out that Sen. Obama is for faith-based charities.  That is, as long as they don't participate in the offenseive practice of...wait for it...only hiring people who believe the same faith as the organization:

Barack Obama's speech in Zanesville, Ohio, yesterday will probably do for him what he designed it to do: attract some more "values" voters his way without his giving an inch on the most important "values" issues: abortion, marriage, and judges.   Left-leaning evangelical Jim Wallis sang his praises on cue.  Far-gone secularist Barry Lynn recited his lines just right, denouncing the looming gap in the wall of separation.  The whole production went off as planned.

Except for its Achilles Heel: faith-based hiring.  Obama will have none of it.  Unless they hire for mission, the identity of these charities precisely as Catholic or Mormon or Pentacostal (or as whatever) will soon disappear.  It is this identity, too, which is key to why they work so well, often better than any secular counterpart charity. But if they hire for mission, these charities will (as an Obama supporter bluntly put it) just have to leave the public money to others.  And note well: there is no question in any of this about serving clients without regard for their religion (or lack of it).

This is one of the biggest reasons* I have been against President Bush's faith-based initiatives.  Under more liberal administrations, "allowing faith-based charities to receive federal funds" becomes "allowing politically correct, non-discriminatory faith-based charities that the administration approves of to receive federal funds." 

Translation: Charities headed by Michael Pfleger, et al get funding.  Charities headed by people like James Dobson and Pat Robertson get no finding.

However, if Obama is elected and gets his way, the first thing I'll do is change my last name to Goldstein and apply at a few Islamic charities. 

*I also think that if you are running a faith-based charity, you should at least have enough faith that it can survive without the federal government intervening on your organization's behalf.  If its in God's plan for the organization to work, it will. 

Posted by: It's Vintage, Duh at 07:39 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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