DHS Gets New Faith-Based Office...separation of church and state?

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

WASHINGTON — In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, President Bush has added one more office of faith-based initiatives to his administration, this time in the Department of Homeland Security.

Proponents of faith-based organizations working with federal assistance are thrilled and say these offices are in part responsible for religious groups receiving $2.1 billion in federal grants last year, up 7 percent from 2004, according to recent White House numbers.

"I just think it's high time that this was there (in DHS)," said Pam Pryor, spokeswoman for We Care America , which connects religious-based charities and relief organizations with federal resources.

But not everyone believes that the federal government should carve out special offices to funnel more than $2 billion a year to religious organizations. Opponents argue that it muddles the separation of church and state and prevents any real controls over whether the money will make its way into an organization's religious activities. "The Bush administration's desire to turn more and more government responsibility over to houses of worship — along with lots of tax dollars — appears to be insatiable," Jeremy Leaming, spokesman for Americans United for the Separation of Church and State , wrote in a recent statement.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,190243,00.html

[Olney Blue]

1. If they just tell DHS to pray harder, maybe they can save money.

[Dr.Phool]

2. Oh Gawd

Faith based homeland security. I thought that's what we already had.

[beam me up scottie]

3. You doubt its effectiveness?

Why, it works as well as the faith based family planning program.

[beam me up scottie]

4. Pictures like that make me want to do terrible things.

:mad:

[Kailassa]

10. Such as baptize him?

Face first in the baptismal font for half an hour?

[ArbustoBuster]

5. When we get back into power...

...we need to destroy every single one of these so-called faith-based initiatives, and in the letters we give to the employees fired as part of the government downsizing, we should include a large copy of the first amendment.

And then we should make certain never again to allow the government to hire anyone who ever worked for one of these faith-based unconstitutional monstrosities. Because anyone who's okay with breaking the wall between church and state so egregiously is either too stupid or too dangerous to be allowed in our government.

[darkmaestro019]

6. Two BILLION. Any of that go to any Wiccan groups? Buddhist? Muslim?

Satanists? Ba'hai? Unitarian Universalists? Mormons? Scientologists? Any of the vodou-type organizations (forgive me, dunno the appropriate word) round New Orleans?

No?

It isn't faith-based. It's Judeo-Christian based and I'm probably being too generous including the Judeo.

[w8liftinglady]

8. exactly my question..

I am a buddhist,and yet I dont see them represented

[NVMojo]

7. I guess is true what they say, the USA is under control of the Chrisian

jihadists.

[NMMNG]

9. Why is it that whenever * prays he looks like he's taking a dump?

And as to the "faith based" garbage in the DHS I think it's just one more way of funneling taxpayer monies to the Christian right--because I can guarantee none of that money is going to any Muslim, Buddhist, Voodoo or Santeria organizations.

[Kailassa]

11. Could it have something to do with all the shit coming out?

I wonder if he threatens to have his goons try simulating drowning on God, or crushing His Son's testicles, if God doesn't tell him what he wants to hear?

What you do for the least of these my children, you do also unto me.

[NMMNG]

12. I wouldn't put anything past him

He is certifiable.

[FredFlash]

13. separation of church and state

Is the following statement by David Barton true or false or misleading?

In 1947, in the case Everson v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court declared, “The First Amendment has erected a wall between church and state. That wall must be kept high and impregnable. We could not approve the slightest breach.” The “separation of church and state” phrase which they invoked, and which has today become so familiar, was taken from an exchange of letters between President Thomas Jefferson and the Baptist Association of Danbury, Connecticut, shortly after Jefferson became President.

FVF