Faith Based Blitz

With his appointment by God, President Bush is on a mission to not only empower the presidancy, but also to errode the seperation of Church and State.

First, here's some excellent quotes from Bush:
"God told me to strike at al Qaida and I struck them, and then he instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did, and now I am determined to solve the problem in the Middle East. If you help me I will act, and if not, the elections will come and I will have to focus on them."

"This crusade, this war on terrorism is going to take a while." – George W. Bush


And one from Lt Gen. William Boykin (USAF, formerly my parents Wing Commander when he was a Lt Col., I include since it's relevant, for posterity)
“George Bush was not elected by a majority of the voters in the United States, he was appointed by God.” - Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin


Now, the problem.

Hein vs. Freedom From Religion Foundation

In a long standing precedant, beginning, really with the Mayflower Pilgrims (who were fleeing religious persecution from England) and later with Roger Williams fleeing Massachusetts and founding Rhode Island there was a definate and standing need to seperate church's from political power.

This need was inacted into the Constitution with intense pressure by James Madison in the phrasing of "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof . . . ." in the First Amendment. With the term itself coming from Thomas Jefferson in a letter he wrote discussing the matter.

This was expanded in several instances, but specifically regarding federal funding of churches or church activities by the Supreme Court in 1971 in the Lemon vs. Kurtzman case, when they established these three rules for governments funds going to an organization:

1.) The government's action must have a legitimate secular purpose;

2.) The government's action must not have the primary effect of either advancing or inhibiting religion;

3.) The government's action must not result in an "excessive government entanglement" with religion.

For the last 3 decades this has been consistently interpretted as 'No Government Funding to Overtly Religious Projects or Groups.'

This has changed. Now the Federal government issues grants specifically tailored for religious groups' community events. By literally interpretting these three rules, the right-wing Supreme Court has over turned the long standing precedent and allowed 'Faith Based Initiatives' to be granted federal tax dollars for community projects. The website for grant application is here

I wouldn't have an issue with this, on the surface, except that none of the 'Faith Based Initiative Programs' I have yet seen failed to advertise God, their church, the Bible, Jesus and the whole gambit in the process of conducting their community program. Now my tax dollars aren't just buying soup for s oup kitchen, they're buying a 'Jesus Loves You' banner, pocket bibles, crucifixs and pamphlets too.

Why should my tax dollars be spent to garner members for a church?