“Religious Groups get federal funds”, “Two agencies to distribute $50 million”, “Money intended to help the needy”- These are headlines on page 12 inside South Florida Sun-Sentinel on Sunday, August 4. There may be a faltering in the Bush Administration’s efforts to transfer Federal control over money for the poor and hungry over to “Faith-Based” charities but two federal agencies are planning to distribute 50 million dollars from funds already in their possession. In simple terms, the President who is in power under the shakiest of circumstances wants to give away federal power and prerogatives to religious institutions. The Labor Department and the Department of Health and Human Services are the Bush directed agencies that will give away money and power to churches, synagogues and mosques. $50 million is a relatively small sum today, but it is a beginning.
The world is witnessing the distress of the Catholic Church in discoveries that faith based priests are ALL under fire for the transgressions of a few. Catholic lay members of churches particularly in the United States are questioning the faith of their fathers as well as their own. There is a cry, a weak cry, afraid to be heard from Islamic “moderates” who fear the power and vengeance of their Mullah driven fundamentalist Jihad against democracy and Jews. These are faith based organizations that are world wide in their hold on peoples most of whom want better service and less passion in their faiths. There are only a few saintly, selfless individuals in each faith who think that their lives are subordinate to the mission to reach out to those less able to care for themselves.
The Bush Administration and its passionate appointees are driving headlong into the murky world of soup kitchens, food pantries and free clothing and counseling to pass out money for services that would be better dedicated (although not less free from criticism) under non-denominational civil service. When you get something free you better remember that there is no such thing as a free lunch. Dependency is the price people pay for the things they are given and most do not like this.
“Faith-Based Charity” is not free. The congregations where these organizations are based want something in exchange for the gifts they give. This is not unexpected and one should not be upset by this. When firemen fix broken toys, repaint them and wrap them up to give to the poor and needy, they want something in return. Your gratitude is one of the things expected and you are also expected to have a mind set that is favorable to the giver and supplier of sustenance. In older times when songs were sung in the services following free meals of bread and soup, the refrain was: in the “Sweet by and by” you will live forever. One parody of this went something like: “In the Sweet by and by you will get pie in the sky when you die – what a lie!” I tend to go along with the latter. It is far better to live in the here and now without hunger and fear, things that too many have to deal with in all times throughout all of history. We have built a great democracy and we should act democratically. We vote people into office, not into power to do as they want. The Bush Administration was not given a mandate to surrender the people’s power to religion.
Most Republican administrations fear that the dependency of the poor and needy on the government will grow if handouts from the Federals continue. This administration would prefer that the States should be responsible. The States have always turned to the Federal Government for help for what is available is never enough. Churches that depend on congregational charity just to exist are asked to have their God loving members help the hordes of people the economy has destroyed and this is never enough and too much for the lucky ones who regularly sit in the pews. The States go to the people for taxes. The Federal government goes to the people for taxes and religious institutions tax their members. It all comes down to asking for money from the same people all the time to pay the bills for government and the running of the organizations they belong to.
This might be painted as Mr. Ashcroft and Mr. Bush trying to get more people into churches, synagogues and mosques. Each of these has its own agenda and while some proselytize all the others do not wish to and simply cannot open doors to the vast numbers of people who need help.
Just as the government is the logical agency to gear the country up for war, the government that is responsible to all the people should be the agency to give help to people in need. Mixing government with religion was anathema to the founding fathers. Keeping government out of religion and religion out of government and the schools should continue to be the major guiding principle for us today.
$50 million is peanuts when compared to the price of one bomber or fighter plane. But, it is a start and a bad precedent. Keep government and religion separate