Wednesday, November 03, 2004
Two more members of the Evangelical Magisterium on the payroll
...your payroll, that is -- because your tax dollars are being shuffled to some of President Bush's most prominent supporters. It's those "Faith-Based Initiatives" -- unconstitutional pork to ruin Christian ministries (I'll explain in a moment).
Esther Kaplan, reporting for The Nation, reports that "Pat Robertson's Operation Blessing -- despite having recently been investigated by the State of Virginia for misusing relief funds to haul equipment for Robertson's for-profit diamond mining firm -- was one of the first organizations to receive a faith-based grant. Robertson scored $500,000 for three years, for a total of $1.5 million..."
"Chuck Colson... was another significant beneficiary, through his evangelical organization Prison Fellowship Ministries, which was chosen by the faith-based office as one of the only four national partners for a $22.5 million workplace re-entry program for ex-offenders..."
No wonder they worked so hard for the Bush "Get Out the Evangelical Vote" effort. There's good money in selling your soul.
Am I being too hard? And what did I mean when I wrote, "unconstitutional pork to ruin Christian ministries." Well, I'll break it down for you.
Unconstitutional -- as in, the 10th Amendment says that if the Constitution doesn't say a given issue or problem is a federal government question, then it's not. In defense of Robertson and Colson, about 90% of what our government does violates the 10th, so I guess two trillion wrongs make a right.
Pork -- politicians using tax dollars to buy support, or in this case, the dark souls of those who have no regard for pesky things like the 10th Amendment and no respect for how hard you worked earning those dollars they'll spend making themselves look good. Remember, on that day, many will say, "Lord we did great things in your name," and He will say, well, you know the story.
The worst thing about welfare -- and make no mistake about it, this is welfare -- is that it destroys character. It creates dependency. In this instance, instead of being accountable to donors who support the mission, the charity becomes accountable to bureaucracy -- even begins to resemble one.
It also leads to government control -- the same government that thinks the Constitution includes the line "Separation of Church and State." My favorite recent example comes from California Catholic Charities, told by a judge that they must provide contraceptive benefits to their employees, even though the Catholic Church opposes contraception.
And why can a judge dictate a nit-picking detail like this? Because the piper calls the tune. And someday, Robertson and Colson will have the misfortune of having a Democrat in the White House who will enjoy messing with their charities. They're just lucky it'll take at least four more years.
...your payroll, that is -- because your tax dollars are being shuffled to some of President Bush's most prominent supporters. It's those "Faith-Based Initiatives" -- unconstitutional pork to ruin Christian ministries (I'll explain in a moment).
Esther Kaplan, reporting for The Nation, reports that "Pat Robertson's Operation Blessing -- despite having recently been investigated by the State of Virginia for misusing relief funds to haul equipment for Robertson's for-profit diamond mining firm -- was one of the first organizations to receive a faith-based grant. Robertson scored $500,000 for three years, for a total of $1.5 million..."
"Chuck Colson... was another significant beneficiary, through his evangelical organization Prison Fellowship Ministries, which was chosen by the faith-based office as one of the only four national partners for a $22.5 million workplace re-entry program for ex-offenders..."
No wonder they worked so hard for the Bush "Get Out the Evangelical Vote" effort. There's good money in selling your soul.
Am I being too hard? And what did I mean when I wrote, "unconstitutional pork to ruin Christian ministries." Well, I'll break it down for you.
Unconstitutional -- as in, the 10th Amendment says that if the Constitution doesn't say a given issue or problem is a federal government question, then it's not. In defense of Robertson and Colson, about 90% of what our government does violates the 10th, so I guess two trillion wrongs make a right.
Pork -- politicians using tax dollars to buy support, or in this case, the dark souls of those who have no regard for pesky things like the 10th Amendment and no respect for how hard you worked earning those dollars they'll spend making themselves look good. Remember, on that day, many will say, "Lord we did great things in your name," and He will say, well, you know the story.
The worst thing about welfare -- and make no mistake about it, this is welfare -- is that it destroys character. It creates dependency. In this instance, instead of being accountable to donors who support the mission, the charity becomes accountable to bureaucracy -- even begins to resemble one.
It also leads to government control -- the same government that thinks the Constitution includes the line "Separation of Church and State." My favorite recent example comes from California Catholic Charities, told by a judge that they must provide contraceptive benefits to their employees, even though the Catholic Church opposes contraception.
And why can a judge dictate a nit-picking detail like this? Because the piper calls the tune. And someday, Robertson and Colson will have the misfortune of having a Democrat in the White House who will enjoy messing with their charities. They're just lucky it'll take at least four more years.
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