That's "change" for you.
"Hub pastor will head president's faith effort" by Joseph Williams, Globe Staff | February 6, 2009
WASHINGTON - President Obama yesterday established his own White House office to help religious organizations compete for federal grants and installed a young Boston minister as its leader, seeking to amend a Bush-era program that critics said violated the separation between religion and government and used federal money to advance an evangelical Christian agenda....
Related: Black Ministers of Boston Want to Keep Black Youth Down
At the annual National Prayer Breakfast yesterday, Obama told the assembled political and religious leaders that the new office "will not be to favor one religious group over another - or even religious organizations over secular organizations. It will simply be to work on behalf of those organizations that want to work on behalf of our communities."
Yeah, sure: Stimulus Bill is For Jewish Interests Only
Why is this guy stepping into Bush's footsteps at each and every turn, liberal DemocraPs?
Faith organizations "are closer to what's happening on our streets and in our neighborhoods" than government, Obama said. "People trust them. Communities rely on them. And we will help them."
Yeah, THEY DO MORE THAN YOU DO so DON'T CORRUPT and TAINT THEM!!!
But Obama's order leaves intact, for now, one of the most disputed policies of the Bush administration's faith-based initiative: A White House Office of Legal Counsel opinion that allows faith-based organizations who receive federal funds to fire or choose not to hire employees who do not agree with their religious beliefs. Bush's policy prompted several lawsuits and outraged civil libertarians.
Hi.
Obama's order says only that the Justice Department will make case-by-case decisions on employment issues in the short term while studying the issue to determine if any changes in the policy are necessary.
Christopher Anders, senior legislative counsel of the American Civil Liberties Union, said his organization strongly objects to Obama's decision to allow the most controversial part of Bush's faith-based agenda to remain in force. Launching another faith-based initiative before resolving the discrimination issue, he said, will allow groups that hire and fire based on religion to continue receiving taxpayer dollars.
Notice how it isn't an ISSUE when it comes to the JEWS?!!!!
The stimulus bill working its way through Congress includes hundreds of millions of dollars in social-service grants that would be apportioned and distributed through various federal agencies including the departments of Health and Human Services and Housing and Urban Development.
Yeah, and WE KNOW to WHOM!!!!
"The Obama administration might be taking this on in the reverse order," Anders said. "They should first write the rules to correct the abuses that took place during the last administration."
But religious leaders praised the president for highlighting their role in administering social-service programs, and for maintaining Bush's commitment to faith-based charities.
"There's a real chance here of taking this to a different place," said Rev. Jim Wallis, president of Sojourners, a progressive Christian activist group, who will serve on Obama's interfaith advisory council. "The office recommits our nation to the necessary and positive vision of partnership between the public sector and the faith community."
Truthfully, religion has been ruined in America. The only one that appeals to me at all at this point is Islam; however, I'm too much of an atheist (sorry, pious people) for that type of commitment!
Obama has long been a supporter of special efforts to reach out to faith-based groups - a point of separation between him and some of his fellow Democrats. Campaigning in Ohio last year, Obama pledged to ramp up religious charities' work in solving the nation's social problems, from providing basic services for the poor to job training for those who need work.
In the same speech, Obama - who taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago - said he believes in the separation of church and state, and promised that no organization that takes federal money will be allowed to practice discrimination or proselytize to its clients.
Unless they are JEWISH!!!!!
Yet yesterday's executive order does not explicitly void the Bush Office of Legal Counsel opinion allowing charities to discriminate in hiring and firing depending on religious beliefs....
Kathryn Kolbert president of the civil libertarian group People for the American Way, said she was disappointed that the president didn't seize the opportunity to issue a strict, clear directive: Religious groups that take federal money cannot discriminate in hiring.
"The president has the power to do that. He made a promise on the campaign trail to do that. He should have done that," said Kolbert, whose organization monitors the boundary between religion and government....
The fact that lefties are unhappy almost makes me favor the policy!
:-)
In a December 2008 report on the White House and faith-based charities, the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank, advised Obama to avoid making sweeping moves to undo Bush policies, suggesting a take-it-slow approach....
Yes, the GLOBALIST, NEO-LIB Brooking suggested.... and 'bamer took it!!!!
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