Under the Bush administration, our country is experiencing a major transformation from a secular to a religious government. The President’s faith-based initiative is central to this transformation and raises serious questions about church-state separation. “Slouching toward theocracy. President Bush’s faith-based initiative is doing better than you think,” by Bill Berkowitz, 2/6/04 provides an overview of this transformation.
In his State of the Union address, Bush renewed a call for Congress to make permanent his faith-based proposals that would allow religious organizations to compete for more government contracts and grants without a strict separation between their religious activities and social service programs.
On February 4, 2004, the U.S. House of Representatives voted for provisions in a social services bill that allow religiously based job discrimination in publicly funded programs run by churches.How Much Money?
How much are taxpayers paying for what Barry Lynn, Executive Director of American’s United calls “federally subsidized employment discrimination?” According to Daniel Zwerdling who produced two programs on faith-based initiative for Bill Moyers TV show NOW in September, 2003, “administration spokesmen say they can’t break down how much money has gone so far to religious groups .. they claim they don’t keep that information.”
The March, 2004, issue of Church and State reports that the “Faith Czar” Jim Towey announced to reporters that $40 billion dollars (Emphasis added.) was now available to religious charities. MORE
In this writer’s opinion, the “Faith Based Initiatives” promoted by President Bush are nothing less than bribes given to the religious community to insure their votes and support, but even conservative Christians have complained that Bush has not lived-up to his promises to the religious-right - and their support of him is beginning to diminish. The crux of the issue is whether or not President Bush is truly a “Born Again Christian” and in my opinion, Catholics and Mormons had better hope that his religious beliefs are phony rather than a reality, because if he is truly a “Born Again Christian” - especially considering his right-wing views - the Catholics and Mormons that support this administration are apt to have a rude awakening once Bush finalizes his quest to change our democracy into a theocratic authoritarian style of government; “Born Again Christians” adamantly believe that Catholicism and Mormonism are nothing more than a cult, and have corrupted the so-called “word of God.” The below quote is from a “Christian” site that explicitly relates how born-again Christians view the Catholic Church:
The Roman Catholic “Church” is Not Christian
Practically all precepts of the Roman Catholic religion contradict the Bible repeatedly. It is the largest cult in the world and most preachers will not openly say so because it is so large. For Catholics who read this, please remember this: the person that tells you the truth is the one that cares.
For a glimpse of the atrocities committed by the Roman Catholic religion, do a net search on the Inquisition or the Crusades. During the Inquisition, the Catholic religion killed millions. Why? Primarily to suppress any and all opposition to the pope. Side “benefits” included taking the material wealth of its victims and showing the pope’s power. The Catholic Inquisitors tortured, crippled, burned, and imprisioned millions of people. Whatever happened to love your enemies? (Matthew 5:44)
Before we get to specific problems with Catholic doctrine, let’s review how this bloodthirsty organization treated a man who simply wanted to get the Bible into the hands of the common people. In the late 1300s John Wycilf translated the scriptures from the Latin Vulgate. Some 40 odd years after his death, the Catholic religion dug up his bones and burned them calling him an arch-heretick. In the 1500’s William Tyndale sought to translate the Bible into the language of the common people, English. He could not gain approval from the Catholic religon so he worked as an outlaw on the run in Europe, translating the Bible. He was eventually captured, condemned and executed in 1536. It is because of people like these men, Tyndale and Wycliffe, that we have the scriptures today. If the Catholic religion had its way, we’d still be in ignorance about the Bible and enslaved to the pope. Time fails me here to tell of other marytrs like John Hus, John Rogers, etc. who were killed by popish persons. MUCH MORE
Not all Christians (REAL Christians in this writer’s opinion.) view Catholics in this manner, but those who are members of the right-wing Evangelical movement do, among others, and their unmitigated support of the “Left Behind” video game they are allowing their children to play demonstrates their bigotry toward anyone that doesn’t share their narrow-minded beliefs:
Imagine: you are a foot soldier in a paramilitary group whose purpose is to remake America as a Christian theocracy, and establish its worldly vision of the dominion of Christ over all aspects of life. You are issued high-tech military weaponry, and instructed to engage the infidel on the streets of New York City. You are on a mission - both a religious mission and a military mission — to convert or kill Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, gays, and anyone who advocates the separation of church and state - especially moderate, mainstream Christians. Your mission is “to conduct physical and spiritual warfare”; all who resist must be taken out with extreme prejudice. LINK
I grew-up in the Mormon Church myself, and am particularly shocked at the huge support the Mormon Church and Utah Republicans provide for this President. Mormonism, as viewed by other “Christian Oriented Churches” are almost unanimously of the opinion that Mormonism is a cult, and that includes many who aren’t even right-wing evangelicals, and I’ve experienced the shock of those who are such “Christians” firsthand in Pensacola, Fl. When the students from Pensacola Christian College came knocking on Sundays; merely mentioning that I was a Mormon was greeted with shock and I was left with the impression they had seen Lucifer himself! I never failed to see them leaving and mumbling to themselves, and at that time, I thought it was comical if not downright absurd. Now, as our country is rapidly becoming more authoritarian in nature, I’m not sure it’s so funny anymore…
When the majority of Americans believe that our country is headed in the wrong way, and the government continues to defy public opinion, how much of your tax dollars are actually represented by the people? Our tax dollars were spent creating NAFTA and CAFTA, two agreements that have helped to destroy Middle-class America, although that’s “Taxation by Misrepresentation”, and now that our own tax dollars have been used against us, I’d consider that to also fall under Taxation without Representation. Add to tax dollars spent on religion and it become crystal clear the government doesn’t give a darn what the “people” think, but spend our money only to gratify the wealthy, the religious, and Corporations.
We seem to be in an endless constitutional crisis that Congress is unable or unwilling to cope with, and as we watch our nation sliding into tyranny, it might be time for people to understand where they might stand if we continue on the road to an utter destruction of the American way of Life.
William Cormier
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