> -----Original Message----- > From: William Bowen [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Wednesday, July 02, 2008 2:54 PM > To: CF-Community > Subject: Re: Obama promises faith-based initiative > > > That's my point. > > There's no logic to the liberal mind, only emotion. > > no Sam, that's one person's opinion, *not* indicative of an entire > group. Being "all grown up" (to quote you) you should (and probably > do) know better. > > Personally, I am not happy with this particular move by Obama, I think > it smacks of pandering. It is not enough for me to change my vote to > McCain, as there are a number McCain's other platform planks against > which I am even more opposed.
It definitely is pandering... but it's not as bad when you actually put it in context. Here's the rest: "Now, make no mistake, as someone who used to teach constitutional law, I believe deeply in the separation of church and state, but I don't believe this partnership will endanger that idea -- so long as we follow a few basic principles. First, if you get a federal grant, you can't use that grant money to proselytize to the people you help and you can't discriminate against them -- or against the people you hire -- on the basis of their religion. Second, federal dollars that go directly to churches, temples, and mosques can only be used on secular programs. And we'll also ensure that taxpayer dollars only go to those programs that actually work." Even as an atheist I've no problem with community groups - even religiously founded groups - running secular aid programs. They are, after all, members of the community and in theory should be better equipped to understand its needs. As long as the days of refusing aid to homosexuals, faith-rather-than-fact abstinence-only education and government funded missionary work are gone I'm all for it. The pandering is in the very concept: "faith-based initiative". We don't need "faith-based" anything... we need well run programs to allow community groups (religious or not) access to public money to assist the public good. So... in short, the statement? Outright pandering. The program? Not a bad idea. Here's the full article I read via Pharyngula: http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2008/07/01/faith/index.html You can ignore the editorializing of the author if you like and just read the quotes from Obama... the AP article that's been flying around was truly misrepresentative. Jim Davis ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;203748912;27390454;j Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:263262 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
