2010
Church-State Watchdog Group Urges Obama To Keep Promise To Fix ‘Faith-Based’ Initiative
On One-Year Anniversary Of Obama ‘Faith-Based’ Plan, President Should Ban Government-Funded Religious Bias And Proselytizing, Says AU
February 2, 2010
President Barack Obama should honor his pledge to reform the “faith-based” initiative by banning job discrimination in tax-funded programs and making it clear that public funds cannot support proselytizing, says Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
In a letter sent to Obama today, Americans United urged the president to reverse Bush-era faith-based policies that remain in effect today and follow through on reforms he proposed when he was a candidate.
“We’ve waited long enough,” said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, Americans United executive director. “The faith-based initiative has serious constitutional defects, and it’s time for a fix. Billions of federal tax dollars are going out the door without adequate religious liberty and civil rights safeguards.”
In a July 1, 2008, speech in Zanesville, Ohio, Obama promised to end Bush administration policies that allowed publicly funded faith-based social services to proselytize and discriminate in hiring on religious grounds.
Back in 1964, I voted for Johnson because I believed that if Goldwater were elected he would escalate the war in Vietnam.
I imagine that the people who voted for Obama must be feeling much the same outrage that I did when Johnson proceeded to do all, and more than all, that we had feared that Goldwater would do.
I remember my parents talking about that business with Goldwater and Johnson. I was 7 at the time. Barry Goldwater is not a name I’ve thought about in a long time!
And yes, as a person who voted for Obama I am not entirely happy with how things have fallen out. I don’t believe he is really a progressive, for example. I think he’s more of a centrist. While I loved how he doled it out to the GOP at the Q&A the other day, I’d like to see more than just rhetoric. But that’s a post for another day – and another blog.