In an interview with David Brody at Christian Broadcasting Networking, Lieberman says, McCain is a serious Christian believer. This runs slightly contrary to what former Republican Senator Rick Santorum said but who am I to say which McCain supporter has a more accurate view (and whether it even matters).
Lieberman went on to criticize Obama’s position on the faith based initiative. “I’m glad to see some other Democrat talk about faith based initiatives,” Lieberman said. This struck me as a bit disingenuous since both Bill Clinton and Al Gore supported the idea. I guess now that he’s no longer a Democrat, Lieberman has swung from showing how.
The second slippery thing he said was that Obama wants to make it so that faith-based organizations couldn’t limit hiring to people of their own faith — i.e. a Baptist Church could be forced to hire non-Baptists. That’s not true. Under Obama’s plan, a Baptist Church could limit its hiring to Baptists as much as they want — except for programs that are getting federal money. So if the church has addiction counselling and a soup kitchen, and it gets government money for the soup kitchen but not the counseling area, then it it could hire only Baptists in the counseling area but couldn’t “dicrimiante” in the soup kitchen. In other words, when you get government money, you have to live by government rules.
On the other hand, there’s a lot about the Obama plan that’s still awfully vague. It’s unclear to me whether he’s advocating going back to the pre-Bush rules, or the pre-Clinton rules (which were even more strict). So far the Obama campaign has not responded to my questions about this.
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posted August 7, 2008 at 3:18 pm
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In other words, when you get government money, you have to live by government rules.
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Then don’t call them faith-based initiatives, call them saul alinsky community beachheads for change.
There will be some selective hiring(from the congregation or demonimation’s social network) and proselytizing(even if it’s just literature laying around) no matter what the law says. That should be acknowledged. I don’t want the religious groups becoming government programs. There’s got to be a balance struck somewhere.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0702/p25s10-uspo.html
“You can’t mention the Salvation Army and Catholic Charities as models of what’s appropriate [as Obama did], and then say you can’t engage in religious discrimination in employment, because both of those organizations do discriminate,” Mr. Stern says.
Obama must be confronted with this issue with these two exact examples before the election. I would love to see him nuance his way through it.
posted August 7, 2008 at 3:29 pm
Oh, for crying out loud. Now Modern Orthodox Jews define Christianity for us? Faith-based initiatives are divinely inspired if advocated by a Republican and faithless if advocated by a Democrat? And all the skeletons in McCain’s closet can just be ignored, let’s just all knock Obama?
I’m a person of faith, a Christian, but the last thing I want done with my tax dollars–or the borrowing in lieu of my tax dollars–is for the government to dole them out to faith-based organizations. If you really believe in and receive divine provision, you don’t need a government check to God’s will.
posted August 7, 2008 at 3:59 pm
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Oh, for crying out loud. Now Modern Orthodox Jews define Christianity for us?
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Ah, so let the hijacking of the Salvation Army and Catholic Charities for hope and change begin?
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Faith-based initiatives are divinely inspired if advocated by a Republican and faithless if advocated by a Democrat? And all the skeletons in McCain’s closet can just be ignored, let’s just all knock Obama?
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Way to take a giant leep on the jump to conclusions mat to nowhere.
Republican’s actually allow faith-based initiatives to be faith-based. The Democrats want a coexist for change choir.
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the last thing I want done with my tax dollars–or the borrowing in lieu of my tax dollars–is for the government to dole them out to faith-based organizations
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Fine, then get rid of them. Just don’t pretend Obama’s not politicing the program either.