Well kids, there go a few more bricks in the wall between church and state. How do you feel knowing that federal dollars (and hundreds of millions of them) are going to organizations that discriminate?
Addressing a key aspect of President Bush's faith-based initiative, a federal judge has ruled that the Salvation Army has the right to hire employees according to its faith principles, even when the charity receives government funding.
"The notion that the Constitution would compel a religious organization contracting with the state to secularize its ranks is untenable in light of the Supreme Court's recognition that the government may contract with religious organizations for the provision of social services," U.S. District Judge Sidney H. Stein said in a Sept. 30 opinion issued in New York City.
The opinion dismisses parts of a case filed against the Salvation Army and New York officials in 2004 by current and former Salvation Army employees who said they were victims of religious discrimination.
George Washington University Law School professor Ira C. Lupu said Stein's ruling helps the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, which has argued that acceptance of government funding should not change a religious group's hiring policies.
"This opinion very much reaffirms what people in the White House office have been saying," he said.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/07/AR2005100701806.htmlMy better half is currently working on an evaluation of faith-based efforts for a particular service need. You would not believe the mismanagement and abuse of funds he's seeing: Dollars taken from federal agencies and given to churches for activities like a $15,000 party for 12 high school graduates. And that was one of the better subgrant applications the faith-based group that got the primary funding had received. My sweetie can't get in touch with some of the grantee organizations because they have no office: The contact information is the head person's home phone. None of the people in charge have project or financial management experience, or even professional experience in the areas involved. They're good people trying to help, but nonetheless . . . None of them will answer relevant questions about what worked and what didn't with the projects: The standard response is something along the lines of "everything was fine, now give us more money." So, there can't be an honest evaluation of any of this. But you can bet that the story that gets published in the New York Times will tell you that everything is running just swimmingly.
Like the breakdown of parliamentary procedures in Congress, this exemplifies the slow wearing-away of our democratic system.
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
