The Faith-Based Fraud
01/24/2005 @ 10:55am
In 2003--according to White House data reported by the Los Angeles Times--Bush doled out $1 billion to hundreds of faith-based groups through a little-noted executive order. More importantly, the Bush Administration used the grants to sway influential African-Americans in key battleground states and reward longtime political supporters at taxpayer expense.
For example, after the Rev. Herb Lusk II delivered the invocation at the 2000 Republican convention, his Philadelphia church received $1 million in federal funds. Bishop Harold Ray, who offered the invocation at a rally for Dick Cheney in Palm Beach, Florida, got $1.7 million for his South Florida ministry. In 2002 Bush personally visited Milwaukee's Bishop Sedgwick Daniels--who voted for Clinton and Gore--and later awarded him a $1.5 million grant. This fall, Daniels's face appeared on Republican Party fliers in Wisconsin, endorsing Bush as a man who "shares our views."
The faith-based initiatives likely played a crucial role in increasing Bush's take of the black vote, especially in targeted swing states. Funnily enough, the campaign held grant-writing workshops in St. Louis in September (when Missouri was still in play) and Miami in October.
Moreover, it's unclear exactly how much money is going where. The recent White House data contains a caveat that it represents all grants. Even the Rev. Sun Myung Moon's cultish Unification Church has received funding. And House Republicans allegedly blocked Democrat Chet Edwards from investigating the money flow. ---
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/outrage?bid=13&pid=2145------
...Religious groups participating in federal job-training programs could hire employees based on their religious beliefs under a jobs bill that passed the House on Wednesday (March 2). The vote to extend and rewrite the 1998 Workforce Investment Act came a day after President Bush chided Congress for failing to pass his faith-based initiatives. Under current law, religious organizations that participate in federal job-training programs cannot discriminate in hiring or firing for taxpayer-funded jobs. The House bill would remove that prohibition, meaning that a faith-based group could limit such employment to fellow believers. Supporters of the clause stress that the 1964 Civil Rights Act protects the rights of religious organizations to take religion into account in their hiring practices. The bill's prospects in the Senate are uncertain.
...Congressman Walter Jones has reintroduced legislation that would let clergy endorse candidates from the pulpit without jeopardizing their churches' tax-exempt status. It is his fourth attempt to win passage of the Houses of Worship Free Speech Restoration Act. At a Capitol Hill news conference with clergy and fellow Republicans from the House and Senate, Jones said, "This will happen in God's time and I believe the time has come." Several ministers said they should not have to worry that the IRS is reviewing their sermons. Rev. C. Welton Gaddy, who heads the Interfaith Alliance, responded that preachers already can say anything they want as long as they are willing to forfeit their tax-exempt status. But supporters of Jones' bill -- HR 235 -- say that effectively muzzles ministers who they say should be able to offer guidance to their flocks without fear of government reprisal. --- http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/3/32005h.asp