How Is the New Faith-based Different From the Old?

Religious bully and hatemonger Bill Donahue strikes at Barack Obama.

“If a customer walked into a New York deli and said, ‘Let me have a hot dog on a roll—hold the frankfurter’—he’d likely be thrown out. That’s what the public should do to Obama’s faith-based initiative: since he wants to gut the faith from his faith-based programs, he should be told to junk it.

“Any church or religious agency that agrees to take federal money on the condition that it must operate in a secular fashion—in hiring and in disseminating its values—is selling out. If Orthodox Jews running a day care center are not allowed to exclusively hire Orthodox Jews, there is nothing kosher about it. If a Catholic foster care program cannot place Catholic children with Catholic parents, it is doing a disservice to the children. If an evangelical drug rehab program can’t deliver a Christian message to its clients, it may as well close up shop. But that’s what Obama wants—he wants to secularize the religious workplace.

Under Bush, religious institutions were not allowed to use federal money to indoctrine people in their faith.

They may not use direct government funds to support inherently religious activities such as prayer, worship, religious instruction, or proselytization.

Any inherently religious activities that the organizations may offer must be offered separately in time or location from services that receive federal assistance.

FBOs cannot discriminate on the basis of religion when providing services.

That doesn't mean I don't think it's a waste of money. Christian leader Jim Wallis concluded that Bush's faith-based initiatives were a failure. Does Obama actually believe he can succeed where Bush failed? Hell if I know.