Jan. 23, 2003 - 21:00 MST

THE WONDERING JEW

Make Sense

What the heck, Eric Lichtblau of The New York Times says that, "Bush alters church rule." "The Bush administration is planning to allow religious groups for the first time to use federal housing money to help build centers where religious worship is held, as long as part of the building is used for social services."

Later on in his article he says this, "Bush administration officials who have made faith-based initiatives a cornerstone of their political agenda, said that, "religious organizations have historically been discriminated against in the fierce competition for federal grants and that the rule change is simply aimed at leveling the playing field to allow them to compete for the same pool of money."

Then Mr. Lichtblau quotes Richard A. Hauser, HUD's general counsel saying in an interview, "We see no reason to exclude religious organizations from participation in these programs if there can be a reasonable mechanism to ensure that a program has no particular religious connotation one way or another."

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Oh damn. "religious organizations have historically been discriminated against in the fierce competition for federal grants," hoo boy, what a crock. I sincerely hope that that statement is fallacious, I hope our federal government is not already giving grants to any religious organization of any kind, for any reason. Grants from the government to religious organizations to my way of looking at it kills the separation of Church and State. So now, is my church going to pay a lobbyist to compete for federal funds to be able for our church to build a building ? What if my church gets a grant, builds a building, puts a fancy name above the arches and then proceeds to use that building now and then for religious purposes ?

I see absolutely no reason on earth that this ball of worms should be rolled into the arena. It violates the separation of Church and State to the max according to the way I look at it.

In our country we have pagans, atheists and people who worship in no organized manner and some who don't worship at all, who I feel should have equal claim on grant money. What about them ? What church is going to make way for them to benefit ?

Looks to me like down the road a piece that suddenly it will be announced that Southern Baptist will be the official religion of the United States, or whatever is his particular faith.

Now things are going along that tax money is headed to private schools, some of which are quite religious. Vouchers ? My foot. Why aren't the public schools brought up to snuff ? Private schools heretofore as well as parochial schools have not had tax money shoved their way, I see no reason to change that. If parents want their kids to go to a private school or parochial school I believe that they should pay to build the buildings, hire the teachers and do their own thing as they have done historically --- but NOT on our tax money.

Are we going to end up in a situation similar to a Shiite / Sunni chaos ?

I can see the stumbling, mumbling infighting in Congress over how to divvy the tax money between churches.

Breaking the separation between Church and State is a sorry state wherein I am trying to Make Sense . . . . . . . . . .

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