Obama follows Bush in funding religion — VOICES for REASON

President Obama is getting well-deserved flak from some of his staunchest Democratic supporters for continuing the Bush Administration’s funding for so-called faith-based programs.

This slickly produced White House video conveys Obama’s perspective on the programs. He identifies himself with the “people of faith” and says that his faith-based program is part of a national “mission of love and service” that will allow us to “fulfill our highest purpose as beloved children of God.”

Of all Bush’s benighted, faith-based policies–remember his ban on funding stem cell research, and his frantic attempts to elevate a brain-dead woman named Terri Schiavo to martyr status?–his creation of a White House office to fund religious organizations was one of the most disgraceful. As my colleague Alex Epstein wrote in 2004:

Bush’s justification for Faith-Based Initiatives reveals their actual purpose: “Welfare policy,” he explains, “will not solve the deepest problems of the spirit. . . . No government policy can put hope in people’s hearts or a sense of purpose in people’s lives. That is done when someone, some good soul, puts an arm around a neighbor and says, ‘God loves you, and I love you, and you can count on us both.’” In other words, the government is bankrolling religious organizations because they “help the needy” not only materially but also spiritually–by exposing them to religion.

But exposing people to religion is something the government should absolutely not be doing. Funding of faith-based initiatives is part of a larger faith-based attack on rational government and violates the First Amendment.

Obama should do two things immediately: (1) Announce a halt to all federal funding of religious organizations, and (2) affirm that the United States government is a purely secular agency.