Last week Obama showed the change he brought to Washington is not the kind of change we can believe in. In fact, it's not really change at all, just the reinforcement of the status quo. Obama strengthened the mixing of religion and government that George W. Bush started on January 29, 2001 when he started the White House's faith-based initiative. (As a Deist this is also an insult against Thomas Paine since Paine's birthday is January 29th.) This unconstitutional monstrosity gives government money directly to religious organizations with the intent that the religious groups use it to take care of the needy. Obama signed an executive order last Wednesday, November 17, 2010 which actually strengthens Bush's blunder.
Obama's executive order gives some unpractical window dressing intended to satisfy people who understand the United States Constitution. For example, the religious organizations are directed to offer information about non-religious social services to people who object to receiving food and assistance from a religious group. Being practical, not many hungry people are going to ask such questions. Like "revealed" religions themselves, this is not very realistic.
The Christian Post was happy with some of the other provisions in Obama's executive order. They report, "Perhaps the most interesting part of the order, however, is the approval that allows religious organizations receiving federal money to provide social services in their facilities without removing religious art, icons and scripture. The organizations also can retain religious terms in their name and choose board members based on religion." This is definitely a victory for religion over the U.S. Constitution and progress.
Joshua DuBois, Pentecostal minister and Obama's director of faith-based program
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Joshua DuBois, the executive director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, is a Pentecostal minister. He said, "With this Executive Order, we are strengthening and clarifying the legal footing of the government's relationship with faith-based organizations and underscoring the important role of these organizations in serving individuals, families and communities in need." What he, Obama and Bush do not understand is that giving any government money to religious organization is a direct violation of the United States Constitution.
James Madison, the Father of the United States Constitution, was confronted with a similar attack on the Constitution in 1811. One of his objections to An act incorporating the Protestant Episcopal Church in the town of Alexandria, in the District of Columbia can be directly applied to the very establishment and existence of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. On page 353 of Liars For Jesus by Chris Rodda we read, "Madison's other big objection to this particular bill was that it included a provision which would give the church a legal agency in carrying out charitable works, which he feared might set a precedent for giving religious organizations 'a legal agency in carrying into effect a public and civil duty.' If Madison thought this was unconstitutional when it didn't even involve government money, faith-based initiatives must have him rolling in his grave." Madison's complete statement from his veto message on this issue was, "Because the bill vests in the said incorporated church an authority to provide for the support of the poor, and the education of poor children of the same; an authority which being altogether superfluous if the provision is to be the result of pious charity, would be a precedent for giving to religious societies, as such, a legal agency in carrying into effect a public and civil duty."
Oh, what a friend the religious right has in Obama! Soon people will wake-up to the fact that there is really no difference in substance between politicians of either party. They are there for their own political careers and nothing else. Hopefully, Deism will continue to grow and continue to spur people to think independently. As Albert Einstein said, "The world that we have made as a result of the level of thinking that we have done so far, has created problems we cannot solve at the level of thinking at which we created them." Deism boosts our level of thinking and our actions to a level high enough to correct our past mistakes! Just as Deists demand that claims and actions in the religious realm align with reason, so it does also in the political realm.
Obama's executive order gives some unpractical window dressing intended to satisfy people who understand the United States Constitution. For example, the religious organizations are directed to offer information about non-religious social services to people who object to receiving food and assistance from a religious group. Being practical, not many hungry people are going to ask such questions. Like "revealed" religions themselves, this is not very realistic.
The Christian Post was happy with some of the other provisions in Obama's executive order. They report, "Perhaps the most interesting part of the order, however, is the approval that allows religious organizations receiving federal money to provide social services in their facilities without removing religious art, icons and scripture. The organizations also can retain religious terms in their name and choose board members based on religion." This is definitely a victory for religion over the U.S. Constitution and progress.
Joshua DuBois, Pentecostal minister and Obama's director of faith-based program
(Image by public domain) Details DMCA
Joshua DuBois, the executive director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, is a Pentecostal minister. He said, "With this Executive Order, we are strengthening and clarifying the legal footing of the government's relationship with faith-based organizations and underscoring the important role of these organizations in serving individuals, families and communities in need." What he, Obama and Bush do not understand is that giving any government money to religious organization is a direct violation of the United States Constitution.
James Madison, the Father of the United States Constitution, was confronted with a similar attack on the Constitution in 1811. One of his objections to An act incorporating the Protestant Episcopal Church in the town of Alexandria, in the District of Columbia can be directly applied to the very establishment and existence of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. On page 353 of Liars For Jesus by Chris Rodda we read, "Madison's other big objection to this particular bill was that it included a provision which would give the church a legal agency in carrying out charitable works, which he feared might set a precedent for giving religious organizations 'a legal agency in carrying into effect a public and civil duty.' If Madison thought this was unconstitutional when it didn't even involve government money, faith-based initiatives must have him rolling in his grave." Madison's complete statement from his veto message on this issue was, "Because the bill vests in the said incorporated church an authority to provide for the support of the poor, and the education of poor children of the same; an authority which being altogether superfluous if the provision is to be the result of pious charity, would be a precedent for giving to religious societies, as such, a legal agency in carrying into effect a public and civil duty."
Oh, what a friend the religious right has in Obama! Soon people will wake-up to the fact that there is really no difference in substance between politicians of either party. They are there for their own political careers and nothing else. Hopefully, Deism will continue to grow and continue to spur people to think independently. As Albert Einstein said, "The world that we have made as a result of the level of thinking that we have done so far, has created problems we cannot solve at the level of thinking at which we created them." Deism boosts our level of thinking and our actions to a level high enough to correct our past mistakes! Just as Deists demand that claims and actions in the religious realm align with reason, so it does also in the political realm.
