Faith Based – Church Takeover – Initiative

I am more leery of the “faith-based” initiatives President Bush began than ever.   Any pastor who involves his church in these programs is a fool.  Here’s why:

In a speech last July, Mr. Obama presented a more clear-cut view of how to draw the constitutional line. “If you get a federal grant, you can’t use that grant money to proselytize to the people you help and you can’t discriminate against them or against the people you hire on the basis of their religion,” he said then.

So if my church creates a job training program (which I’m hoping someday they will do, so I can provide free computer training to people who need it; sort of a ministry parallel to the welfare system’s job training from which I benefited) and takes federal funding, then my church could be put in a position of hiring someone with whom we disagree.  Is that so bad?  Well, if it were a secular non-profit, no.  But it’s fundamentally dishonest for churches to pretend that these faith-based initiatives aren’t – at some level – a method of proselytizing.  Of course they are. It’s stupid to pretend that they are not. Christians do not serve the poor for the sake of the poor.  As Jesus said, the poor will be with us always; the problem of poverty cannot be solved.  We serve the poor for the glory of God, and for the good that such service does us.

Whether you believe in a leftist-socialist cabal whose aim is to destroy churches, or in a conspiracy of shared values to do so, or in human frailty and unintended consequences is irrelevant.  The golden rule applies here – he who has the gold, makes the rules.  And pastors who accept federal funding for ministries are fools.  It will certainly not stop there; it’s the camel’s nose in the tent.  Barney Frank’s efforts (with which I do not disagree) to limit CEO pay for organizations that accepted bailout money are now being considered for formerly free businesses that didn’t accept a nickel from taxpayers.

By the acceptance of federal funding, churches cede control of who works for that ministry.  This will obviously weaken the ministry.  A little yeast leavens the whole loaf.  Depending on how conspiracy-minded you are, you might believe that’s the entire point. Consider the fact that a church with a job training ministry could be compelled to hire a qualified applicant who is a member of NARAL or NAMBLA.  Consider the fact that the ACLU would gleefully defend – for free – such a person from attempts to block them from being hired or, after being hired, to fire them.  Consider the fact that just as Christians have every right to keep bibles on their desks, NARAL or NAMBLA literature could be displayed in church offices.  Consider the laws about hostile work environments and how they could be used against a Christian ministry for openly believing things about homosexuality, abortion, or other hot-button issues.  Would a church win such cases in court?  Maybe.  How many tens of thousands of dollars that would otherwise be devoted to ministry could be spent finding that out? Consider these things, if your church is considering jumping on the Federal bandwagon.

Hat tips to Jonnathan and to Cindy!