The government’s Faith-based Initiative is not what it seems. While the faith-based initiative has allowed religious social service groups to have access to federal grants, there has been less money available for social service groups in general than before. "The faith-based initiative has been used largely as a political tool to attract support from religious communities." Amy Sullivan. The White House could "can add another few billion to insure every American child has health care. It could launch a program to simply eliminate hunger. Groups like America’s Second Harvest have the plan. Bump up the Compassion Capital Fund to $500 million a year and be marveled by change." Instead of working to provide social services, the White House favors money for almost everything but this.

"No administration since LBJ’s has had a more successful legislative track record than this one. From tax cuts to Medicare, the White House gets what the White House really wants. It never really wanted the "poor people stuff." Not only were the tax items dropped from the 2001 tax relief bill, they were also ignored on numerous occasions when they could have been implemented. In December 2001, for instance, Sen. Daschle approached the Domestic Policy Council with an offer to pass a charity relief bill that contained many of the president’s campaign tax incentive policies plus new money for the widely-popular and faith-based-friendly Social Services Block Grant. The White House legislative affairs office rolled their eyes while others on senior staff yawned. We had to leave the offer on the table."

This is from the ex-Special Assistant to the president and ex-Deputy Director of the Faith-Based Initiative, David Kuo, http://www.beliefnet.com/story/160/story_16092_1.html .

Other interesting information includes the difference between Kennedy’s and Bush’s faith. "War and hunger and ignorance and despair have no religious boundries." We should judge based on fruits, not on someone calling out to God.

Faith-based Initiative: white-washing

This entry was originally published at Interconnectedness by Mikhail (Misha) Lomize