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Americans United for Separation of Church and State - Orange County |
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Faith Based InitiativeThe Faith Based Initiative is an insidious intrusion into the separation of church and state that was established by the First Amendment to our Constitution. Our nation is a product of our Constitution. Within that document, there is no mention of God. The only mention of religion is in Article VI that states that there shall be no religious test for office. Our founders established the first secular nation because they feared the influence of religion upon the state that resulted in centuries of religious wars in Europe. Our nation was founded upon the concept that the government served at the will of the governed, not the will of God. The First Amendment states, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." Two things were guaranteed: that Congress will not favor, promote, or endow religion and that Congress shall not impede, obstruct, or penalize religion. Yet today, Congress has sidestepped the Constitution, and the Executive Branch has issued Executive Orders that have obliterated the separation of church and state. The following research is available at: http://www.pbs.org/now/politics/churchandstate2.html Welfare Reform Act and Ashcroft Amendment (1996) The 1996 Welfare Reform Act, signed by President Clinton, enabled some houses of worship to receive tax dollars for delivery of social services, due to an amendment sponsored by then Senator, now Attorney General, John Ashcroft. Prior to that year, government funds could go to religious groups for social services, but the institutions were required to have separate, secular nonprofit entities to administer the programs. With the "charitable choice" provision of the 1996 act, religious charities were permitted to compete for government welfare dollars. Some groups fear that the ramifications of adding religious groups to the federal welfare equation are far-reaching. The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force complains that the 1996 Welfare Act also "allowed religious institutions to discriminate in their hiring practices on the basis of religious belief, gender, race and ethnicity, and other factors. Moreover, the 1996 law eliminated safeguards that were intended to prevent recipients from being subjected to unwanted proselytizing, the display of large religious icons in areas where services were provided and other forms of captive-audience religious expression." Faith-Based Initiatives In January 2001, President Bush announced the establishment of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives and Centers for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives in initially five, and later seven Cabinet agencies: the Departments of Justice, Agriculture, Labor, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, and Education and the Agency for International Development. The Office was formed to lead a "'determined attack on need' by strengthening and expanding the role of faith-based and community organizations in addressing the nation's social problems. The President envisions a faith-friendly public square where faith-based organizations can compete equally with other groups to provide government or privately-funded services." Critics say that Bush's faith-based initiative doesn't have clear enough protections against prosleytizing and discrimination in hiring. But it's not just Republicans who've thought that taxpayers' money should be given to religious organizations to run social welfare programs. In fact, during his campaign for the presidency, then Vice President Al Gore proposed doing something very similar. Americans United for Separation of Church and State (AU) strongly oppose giving broad-based funding to churches and other religious groups. Charging that faith-based initiatives violate the separation of church and state in various ways, AU refers to such initiatives as "Taxpayer Funded Religious Discrimination." Some further references: President Obama Continues the Faith Based Initiative
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