Federal Office of Faith-Based Initiatives is Crap

I thought the office of Faith-Based Initiatives under Bush was disgusting - a direct handout, probably in violation of separation betewen church and state, to religious institutions to use to spread religious messages. I was looking forward to seeing this program shuttered.

Sadly, it appears Obama will be continuing it. Now, maybe he has some non-objectionable way to do so, but as a symbol, it isn't encouraging. That said, it was amusing and also disgusting to hear the recipients of the funding whining about how under Obama, they might be forced to hire people they don't want to, or do other things they don't want, that might "violate" their religious beliefs. They whine about the separation of church and state - not realizing the irony of them complaining about the strings attached when they take federal handouts as a violation of church/state separation.

The violation is when they are allowed to use federal funds in a sectarian way - meaning that if they use funds and discriminate based on their religious beliefs, they are violating the law because the government can't use sectarian beliefs as a basis for doing anything. Because otherwise government would be directly funding a specific sect.

It is annoying. If they don't want the strings, it is simple. Don't take the money. But if you do take the money, don't whine about the strings. Guess what - you don't get to take MY money to use for promoting your bullshit fairy tales. And no, non-sectarian, non religious teachings like science, like teaching evolution are NOT the same thing as your fairy tales. So don't start whining about how "secular humanism" as a "religion" is being taught with government money. Ugh.

But really, there should be no "faith-based" initiatives funded with government money. If people want to fund sectarian religious groups, that's fine. They can choose to do so with their own money. Leave government out of it. Follow the Constitution. And stop whining about not being able to discriminate with public money.