Somehow I had a feeling Obama was too good to be true. There had to be something about him that was eventually going to disappoint me. And now I know what it is:
CHICAGO - Reaching out to religious voters, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is announcing plans to expand President Bush’s program steering federal social service dollars to religious groups and — in a move sure to cause controversy — support some ability to hire and fire based on faith.
[...] Obama does not support requiring religious tests for recipients of aid nor using federal money to proselytize, according to a campaign fact sheet. He also only supports letting religious institutions hire and fire based on faith in the non-taxypayer funded portions of their activities, said a senior adviser to the campaign, who spoke on condition of anonymity to more freely describe the new policy.
I suppose so long as he’s including more than just the Right Wing Nutsacks Evangelicals in handing out government money that’d be at least somewhat of an improvement over Bush’s plan, but I’ll believe it when I see Muslims or, even better, Wiccans getting a grant. The Right Wingers, of course, are going to have a hissy fit when they’re suddenly no longer the only ones sucking on the taxpayer teat. Expanding the program, however, is not the ideal solution:
Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, criticized Obama’s proposed expansion of a program he said has undermined civil rights and civil liberties.
“I am disappointed that any presidential candidate would want to continue a failed policy of the Bush administration,” he said. “It ought to be shut down, not continued.”
Agreed. The government has no business being involved with the funding of religious organizations of any kind. Looks like it will continue to do so, however, even if the Republicans aren’t in control.
Posted on 07/01/2008 at 01:55 PM 
Hmmn, the faith based initiatives could be a good thing: Has he not argued that America is not a ‘christian nation’? Hopefully large chunks of the funding will go to other mainstream religians such as islam, judaism, hinduism and Budhism. If so, it could shed a lot of light on how mutually contradictory they all are. The ability to hire and fire based on faith is far more likely to do damage, somehow i doubt that there are many people in religious orginisations who this will aply to, so it leaves one to wander, what is his plan concerning it? The only course of action that this could be in aid of (as far as I can see) is giving employers the right to hire and fire based on religion outside of religious organisations, which really seems quite out of character for Obama. Ah well, i still prefer him to that antique that the Republicans have put forward.