Faith-based What?

In all the hoopla surrounding this administration’s “faith-based initiatives” (latest CBS story linked there), I’m trying to get to the bottom of how much money has been granted, by whom, to which organizations, and when. I recall seeing a list of the 2003 grantees quite some time ago, and there are references to such a list being published by the AP in both my Google search results as well as mentions of the list at the White House’s FBCI site, but every attempt to actually find this list has resulted in a 404 error (page not found). As far as I know, there also has been no published list of grantees for 2004, although the FBCI site says that such a list should be available later this month on their site. Why isn’t the 2003 list already available there?

The 2003 list I recall seeing (unfortunately I didn’t think at the time to save a local copy) did not provide grant money to any religious group outside of the Christian faith. Not one red cent. I’m looking for documentation to either prove or disprove my memory of that list.

With neither Congressional approval nor oversight, and without Judicial review, Bush has apparently implemented his vision of doling out multi-billions of federal taxpayer funds annually to faith-based groups to supplement or support their social services programs. Many of the groups that did receive money have entirely secular missions and some organizations were surprised to find their names on a list of faith-based groups provided to The Associated Press by the White House. If, indeed, this is the centerpiece of Bush’s domestic agenda, a drive to rebuke the heart and intent of the New Deal and the War on Poverty, it is one being interpreted and implemented by faith-based organizations that are hand-picked by the White House and the agencies and offices under its direct control.

There is also the question of whether these particular faith-based programs were appropriate and whether they actually met the requirements for the grant money. Some, apparently, have no connection at all to religion. White House officials have said the list included groups which had identified themselves as faith-based and groups which officials thought religious based on their names. I’m wondering if it is really that easy to get grant money, just because the White House thinks your group is religious based on its name. Think about it, any organization of any sort of political or ideological basis (even a hate group) might have gotten grant money merely by using a name that “sounded” Christian. In order to clarify this situation, I think it is imperative to find a copy of that list, as well as look closely at the 2004 list if/when it becomes available.

At least four longtime operatives of Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s Unification Church are on the federal payroll or getting government grants in the administration’s Healthy Marriage Initiative and other “faith-based” programs. I find this very troubling, considering Rev. Moon has done prison time for tax evasion. That isn’t an allegation, that is a fact.

Given the Religious Right’s political muscle, the persecution mentality that seems pervasive among it’s members seems more like a justification for its members’ aggressive profiteering and politicking than a cry for social justice. After all, how can they claim to be persecuted when they have not only newspaper but television media outlets (and Politics as well) to get their message to the public? I don’t recall seeing any other religion with a regular cable lineup, which I’m forced to pay for if I want cable television in my house at all. Where is the Taoist channel? Where is the Hindu channel? Where is the Pagan channel? (Not to mention the thousands of other religions in the world which are, in the Religious Right’s worldview, apparently not getting persecuted… oh yeah, except by the Religious Right, right?) Where are these other religions’ newspapers and television networks and why don’t we see their correspondents on the air in this country? Could the lack of their voices have anything to do with religious intolerance and persecution?

Methinks the Christians doth protest too much.

More here and here.