Obama's Faith-Based Folly

Barack Obama is making me more nervous by the day.

After last week's capitulation on FISA and his endorsement of capital punishment, I wasn't sure where he'd retreat to next.

But now I know: straight into the church, where he’s seeking asylum for ever having been, or been viewed as, a progressive.

On Tuesday, he came out to endorse a version of Bush's faith-based initiative.

He even borrowed Bush-like language by downplaying the role of government.

"The challenges we face today—from saving our planet to ending poverty—are simply too big for government to solve alone," Obama said. "We need all hands on deck." He added, "I'm not saying that faith-based groups are an alternative to government."

Similarly, Bush said, "Government cannot be replaced by charities, but it can and should welcome them as partners."

Obama himself used the word "partnership" a couple of times, extolling the "value of a partnership between the White House and faith-based groups."

Like Bush, Obama is relying on faith-based groups to help struggling families. But if we had a government that performed its proper function "to promote the general welfare," this initiative would be superfluous.

As it is, it will further privatize essential government services. And rather than using tax dollars to do the work of government, Obama—like Bush—will be funneling taxpayer dollars to religious groups.

Oh, I know, Obama assures us that the money this time won't be used to proselytize and that the churches, synagogues, and mosques won’t be able to discriminate against prospective employees on the basis of their religion.

But at bottom, the faith-based initiative, no matter the clunky name Obama affixes to it (Council for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships), will amount to the same old government subsidy for religious groups.

If you give a church a million dollar grant to cover a program it's already running, that frees up a million bucks for that church to go find converts.

Is that really what our tax dollars should be doing?

What about the First Amendment’s establishment clause?

Obama waved at it, right before he ran it over.