Building (a dorm) on faith, you say?
Some Va. groups puzzled by appearance on U.S. faith-based funding list
http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD/MGArticle/RTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1149192219685
[excerpt]
BY ALBERTA LINDSEY
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Dec 17, 2006
Many Virginia organizations that have received federal grants for years now
find themselves listed as part of President Bush's faith-based initiative.
Some didn't even know.
Officials at Ferrum College outside Roanoke were surprised to find
themselves as the top Virginia recipient of faith-based-initiative funds in
2005.
The $14.6 million the school received was a low-interest loan from the U.S.
Department of Agriculture's Rural Development Program. It funded Ferrum
Plus, a project that involved construction of a dorm and conference center,
plus renovations.
Last year, the faith-based initiative helped direct at least $2.1 billion
in competitive grants to religious groups, up nearly 10 percent from a year
earlier, according to a limited White House review of agency records.
The key word there is "helped." There is no pot of faith-based money at the
federal level, so the scope of the initiative's efforts is based in part on
how a grant gets categorized.
For more than 25 years, the Vir- ginia Council of Churches has been
receiving taxpayer money to finance Head Start programs for children of
migrant workers. The faith-based initiative was not started until three
years ago, and now the council is listed as receiving such a federal grant.
"What they have done is redefined ongoing relationships with the federal
government to make the administration look like it's doing something more
than it's doing," said the Rev. Jonathan Barton, general minister of the
Virginia council. "We are not doing anything that's new or that came about
because of the faith-based initiative."
[end excerpt]
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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]
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.. . . 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)
.. . .
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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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