sunrisescholar | Something interesting (at least to me)

So I was looking at the Wikipedia entry on the Department of Homeland Security and I saw a curious link and followed it to the government page.

One of the divisions controlled by the Under secretary for Preparedness is the Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. Knowing Bush's penchant for pushing faith-based policies, I was a little curious and scared.

"The Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives will coordinate Department efforts to eliminate regulatory, contracting, and other programmatic obstacles to the participation of faith-based and other community organizations, advancing our overall mission and strengthening the Department's preparedness efforts."

Now I understand that religious organizations can play a large role in cleaning up after disasters like Katrina. So does the secular public and I think that's great. Personally, I believe that the government should provide post-disaster relief, other people disagree, and that's fine too. I wasn't aware that there were actually any federal restrictions on religious groups providing aid and am pretty skeptical that such limitations exist, but what do I know.

What worries me is establishing a decided role for religious groups in government directorates. Admittedly, Bush & co. aren't fond of federal domestic aid programs and are looking for every opportunity to cut them -- if I had built up a $500 trillion deficit (or whatever it is now), I might want to cut corners too. But turning public welfare over to religious groups is NOT okay and gives them a foothold in the government, which is a dangerous dangerous thing.