Consider the first steps of a new president who claims to want to unite the nation - Bush Keeps Faith Atop Agenda - the article quotes W as saying that religious discrimination must end (sounds good) and the way this will be accomplished will be to fund "faith based" social programs (ok, tell me more...). Details still to come.
Interestingly, the tax plan which dovetails with this new social initiative is inheritance tax reform. Molly Ivins of the Star Telegram made the connection that taking the inheritance tax away removes a powerful incentive for people to donate major chunks of their estates to their churchs. (and isn't that what tax breaks are really all about - the government incentivizing us to do what they want us to do through our pocketbooks?) But, the Feds will come to the rescue to fund social programs run by churches. What will the net result of the financial support be?
What are the implications of this thing? It will be interesting to see, if this program gets off the drawing board, just which faith based programs will be funded, and how the criteria for making the choices will be determined? Will Buddhist organizations ever see any of these funds? Judging from the contemptuous tone in the Republican ads, I will assume not. Those ads were terribly insulting - they had nothing to do with campain fund raising, and everything to do with religious superiority - if you could replay them, what you would hear is the word "Buddhist" spoken as though it were the most discusting word imaginable. The discussion boards cared less about the fund raiser, and more about Al Gore associating with the heathen hords.
Will Louis Farakan's organization receive funding? He does head up the largest prison outreach program in the country, one that can boast some measure of success.
We all know the answers to these questions, we non-Christians will be left out and, sadly, made to feel even more alianated from our culture. It took many years for me to be open about my religion, having grown up in the Bible belt, being told I'm going to hell, having to keep my opinions to myself because I knew it would affect my chances of employment. Even to the point of having been threatened several times, and beaten once while in high school because I didn't "love Jesus". I'm always astonished at Christians in this country who think they are being persecuted - the vast majority of people in this country are Christians - and the very things that many Christians look at as discriminatory are more about defending ourselves from them, than hindering them.
In the "Excuse me, but your mic is on..." department,
Slate reported that:
"The WSJ reports that yesterday, without realizing that his remarks were being broadcast on a feed to some White House reporters, President Bush told the heads of some Catholic charities that his faith-based social services initiative was linked to his goal of curtailing abortions, a connection he did not make when he announced the initiative earlier this week. During the same meeting, reporters were also able to hear Bush say that his plans for federal funding for school vouchers may not succeed because a lot of Republicans don't like them. Online, the NYT carries an AP dispatch about the same meeting, which plays the voucher comment and Bush's joke that he's about to name his brother Jeb ambassador to Chad above the abortion comment."
Personally, I consider a hidden agenda to be a lie. I wonder how many more lies are out there already, and how many we're in for.
Some links via Booknotes (the true "best kept secret" weblog out there, as far as I'm concerned! :)
