News | Obama Promises a Constitutional Faith-Based Program: An Oxymoron?

[Also see: Position paper on the faith-based initiatives]
[Also see: Letter to both presidential campaigns (.pdf)]

[Update: On July 2nd, Republican candidate John McCain's campaign issued this statement: "John McCain supports faith based initiatives, and recognizes their important role in our communities. He has co-sponsored legislation to foster improved partnerships with community organizations, including faith-based organizations, to assist with substance abuse and violence prevention. He also believes that it is important for faith-based groups to be able to hire people who share their faith, and he disagrees with Senator Obama that hiring at faith-based groups should be subject to government oversight."]

Obama Promises a Constitutional Faith-Based Program: An Oxymoron?

July 1, 2008

The Secular Coalition for America calls for the next administration to end, not re-invent, the flawed and failed experiment called the faith-based initiative.

Image courtesy of www.BarackObama.com In a speech today, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama announced plans to overhaul and expand President Bush's Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives (OFBCI). Obama said his new program would be called the "Council for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships" and that constitutional problems inherited from Bush's OFBCI would be addressed.

In this election year, the Secular Coalition for America is working with its allies to ensure that both presidential candidates are better educated on the issue of government aid to religious groups. The Coalition calls for the next administration to end, not re-invent, the flawed and failed experiment called the faith-based initiative. Twisting our Constitution to fit a "new and improved" version can't change the fact that funneling tax dollars to religious organizations is, at its core, unconstitutional.

The Bush presidency's faith-based funding scheme has come under attack for exempting religious organizations from anti-discrimination laws and turning a blind eye to tax-supported proselytizing. Senator Obama addressed these issues in today's speech:

Now, make no mistake, as someone who used to teach constitutional law, I believe deeply in the separation of church and state, but I don't believe this partnership will endanger that idea – so long as we follow a few basic principles. First, 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. Second, federal dollars that go directly to churches, temples, and mosques can only be used on secular programs. And we'll also ensure that taxpayer dollars only go to those programs that actually work.

Because the current program is rife with problems, the Secular Coalition for America thanks Senator Obama for recognizing the constitutional dangers of faith-based programs: using federal funds to proselytize, religious tests for aid recipients, and religious discrimination in hiring practices. Unfortunately, it appears that Obama still fails to understand that constitutional mandates quite simply prohibit "federal dollars that go directly to churches, temples, and mosques."

Direct federal funding of houses of worship, regardless of how the funds are used, is a violation of the separation of church and state.

[Also see: Position paper on the faith-based initiatives]