Religions > Atheism > Bush 'Faith-Based' Initiative Was Used For GOP Campaigns, Former White House Official Charges In New Book
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Religions > Atheism |
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13 Oct 2006 03:23:55 AM |
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Bush 'Faith-Based' Initiative Was Used For GOP Campaigns, Former White House Official Charges In New Book |
** PRESS RELEASE ** PRESS RELEASE ** PRESS RELEASE **
You can view an HTML version of this email at the following address:
http://www.au.org/site/R?i=ABmJgJjMtTuRT2XpzF-Y_A..
October 12, 2006
Bush 'Faith-Based' Initiative Was Used For GOP Campaigns, Former White
House Official Charges In New Book
White House Faith-Based Office Is 'Deplorable Sham' And Should Be Shut
Down, Says AU's Lynn
A new book by a former staffer in the White House Office of
Faith-Based and Community Initiatives details how the much-ballyhooed
Bush "faith-based" initiative was cynically manipulated by Republican
operatives to help GOP candidates locked in close races.
David Kuo's forthcoming book, Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of
Political Seduction, also asserts that applications for federal
faith-based funds were sometimes rejected by reviewers because they
came from non-Christian applicants, that civil rights rollbacks sought
by the administration were unneeded and that Bush's conservative
Christian allies were derided behind their backs and bought off with
White House cufflinks and other trinkets.
Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which has led
opposition to President George W. Bush's faith-based initiative, said
the information is confirmation of critics' long-standing complaints.
"This is proof that the faith-based initiative was a deplorable sham
from day one," said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, Americans United executive
director. "This initiative was never about helping the poor; it was
about shameless partisan politicking. It has undercut the
constitutional separation of church and state, and it has been
horrible public policy.
"The White House faith-based office ought to be shut down today,
before more taxpayer money is misused," Lynn said. "Kuo's book
confirms evidence that Americans United brought forward four years
ago. The faith-based initiative is a travesty that has gone on far too
long."
Kuo alleges that White House strategist Karl Rove and other Republican
leaders staged a series of supposedly non-partisan events around the
faith-based initiative in states with tight House and Senate races.
According to Kuo, 20 events were held, and Republican candidates
subsequently won 19 of those races. Discussing the book on MSNBC's
"Countdown" last night, Keith Olbermann remarked, "The [faith-based]
office was literally a taxpayer-funded part of the Republican campaign
machinery."
In the book, Kuo writes that in 2002, "The office decided to hold
roundtable events for threatened incumbents with faith and community
leaders, using the aura of our White House power to get a diverse
group of faith and community leaders to a 'nonpartisan' event
discussing how best to help poor people in their area."
Kuo says faith-based office staffers spent a lot of their time trying
to prove that religious groups were often denied federal funds because
they discriminated in hiring on religious grounds. In fact, staffers
were able to find few examples of such conduct. That absence of such
evidence dramatically undercuts the Bush administration's demand that
Congress revise civil rights law so that religious groups will be
better able to apply for funds.
Kuo also maintains that non-Christian groups were sometimes excluded
from faith-based funding, even though White House officials insisted
the money would be available to all.
Kuo quotes one official who rated grant applications. He told Kuo,
"When I saw one of those non-Christian groups on the set I was
reviewing, I just stopped looking at them and gave them a zero. A lot
of us did."
While the White House was happy to take evangelicals' votes, it had
nothing but contempt for their leaders, Kuo asserts. He alleges that
staffers in Rove's office referred to Religious Right leaders as
"nuts" and writes, "National Christian leaders received hugs and
smiles in person and then were dismissed behind their backs and
described as ridiculous, out of control and just plain goofy."
To placate them, the evangelical leaders were given White House
cufflinks or pens, Kuo writes.
Americans United's Lynn said the new revelations underscore charges AU
made four years ago about the faith-based initiative.
During the 2002 elections, AU issued a report noting that James Towey,
then head of the faith-based office, traveled to states and districts
with close races to host "seminars" on how religious leaders could get
federal money. He was usually accompanied by Republican candidates.
The pattern was repeated in 2004.
Concluded Lynn, "All of this just underscores why the faith-based
initiative is such a bad idea. The White House politicized the
initiative, and many religious leaders have ended up being
manipulated. I hope this sorry incident is a lesson to them."
Americans United is a religious liberty watchdog group based in
Washington, D.C. Founded in 1947, the organization educates Americans
about the importance of church-state separation in safeguarding
religious freedom.
************************************************************
Americans United Press Contacts:
Joe Conn, Rob Boston, Jeremy Leaming
Fax: 202-466-2587
www.au.org/press
***************************************************************
You are invited to check out the following:
The Rise of the Theocratic States of America
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/theocracy.htm
American Theocrats - Past and Present
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/theocrats.htm
The Constitutional Principle: Separation of Church and State
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html
[and to join the discussion group for the above site and/or Separation of
Church and State in general, listed below]
HRSepCnS · Hampton Roads [Virginia] SepChurch&State
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HRSepCnS/
[Its not just Hampton Roads folks who are members, there are members from
all over the US and a couple from overseas as well]
***************************************************************
.. . . You can't understand a phrase such as "Congress shall make no law
respecting an establishment of religion" by syllogistic reasoning. Words
take their meaning from social as well as textual contexts, which is why "a
page of history is worth a volume of logic." New York Trust Co. v. Eisner,
256 U.S. 345, 349, 41 S.Ct. 506, 507, 65 L.Ed. 963 (1921) (Holmes, J.).
Sherman v. Community Consol. Dist. 21, 980 F.2d 437, 445 (7th Cir. 1992)
.. . .
****************************************************************
USAF LT. COL (Ret) Buffman (Glen P. Goffin) wrote
"You pilot always into an unknown future;
facts are your only clue. Get the facts!"
That philosophy 'snipit' helped to get me, and my crew, through a good
many combat missions and far too many scary, inflight, emergencies.
It has also played a significant role in helping me to expose the
plethora of radical Christian propaganda and lies that we find at
almost every media turn.
*****************************************************************
THE CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLE:
SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html
****************************************************************
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