DJ Grothe, host of the Point of Inquiry podcast, writes about why he is disappointed by President Barack Obama:
But there is one area of change I can’t believe in: Obama has not only brought change to Bush’s Faith Based Initiative, but has actually expanded the program! And he did so without even attempting to change it in the right ways so as to officially prohibit proselytizing and religious discrimination! Real change would be to abolish such a dangerous blending of church and state.
He goes into detail about the many reasons the Faith Based Initiatives program bothers him. Here’s the brief overview:
- There is no real oversight of the religious groups who will receive the funding under Obama’s expanded program.
- There is a real risk that widely respected safeguards protecting the separation of church and state will actually be overturned.
- There aren’t clear criteria drawing distinctions between mainline and fringe faith groups.
- Reducing the number of abortions is a completely unworthy goal.
- Government funded support of religion to encourage “interfaith dialogue” is not the way to reduce religious tensions around the world.
- In a society that promotes religious liberty, tax payers should not be forced to contribute to religions they don’t support personally.
- One of Obama’s goals, to “increase the role of fathers,“ is based on pseudoscience and is tied to the destructive “pro-marriage” agenda.
I suspect #4 will be the most controversial of his reasons. Still, I agree that this is disappointing news.
I would’ve hoped a Constitutional lawyer like Obama would just put a stop to the whole program altogether.
(via Center For Inquiry)