“PET PROJECT” EARMARKS, LOBBYING SOAR AS RELIGIOUS GROUPS BENEFITGovernment grants to faith-based organizations have “increasedsharply” in recent years thanks to lobbying by religious groups and”earmarks” from politicians, according to a study released Saturday bythe New York Times.The findings reveal that more than half of theconstitutionally-suspect grants took place beginning with theCongressional session that included the 2004 presidential election,with legislators approving nearly 900 earmarks for religious groupstotaling in excess of $318 million.The figure does not include the over $1.2 billion that some observerssay is the total amount given to churches and other religiousorganizations thanks to President Bush’s federal faith-basedinitiative and similar programs operating in two-dozen states. Earmarks are federal awards that circumvent theconstitutionally-required process of review and competitive bidding.”They have been blamed for feeding the budget deficit and have figuredin several Capitol Hill bribery scandals,” noted the Times, “promptingrecent calls for reform from White House and Congressional leaders.”Critics charge that the earmark process weakens financialaccountability on how taxpayer money is spent, and amounts to a systemof political bribery for the benefit of politicians.The report also noted that as earmarks for faith-based projects havegrown, so has the number of religious organizations hiring Washington,DC-based lobbying firms. One earmark grant paid for a fitness centerat Malone College in Canton, Ohio, a “small evangelical Christianliberal arts” institution. The $1 million facility was gratis Rep.Ralph S. Regula. The college hired a lobbying firm “to help us with a’boots on the ground’ program of meeting with various Congressionaland Senate leaders,” a college spokesperson told the Times.”I never heard religious lobbyists talk about earmarks,” said Dr.Allen Hertzke, professor at the University of Oklahoma who monitorsreligious advocacy work. Daniel Hofrenning, professor at St. OlafCollege in Minnesota agreed, saying “Getting heavily into thepork-barrel politics of earmarks, that is a distinctive change.”A review of the grants listed in the Congressional Record reflectedthat 39 states and the District of Columbia received earmarkedbenefits directed to religious groups. They cover a staggering arrayof projects, everything from the construction of “green” retirementfacilities (Michigan) to subsidies for unspecified “teen programs” inConnecticut and a “technology grant” at a Christian home for boys inKentucky.
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In Indiana there is a lawsuit pending over a $60,000 per yr faith based position offered to some good for nothing baptist and in stark disregard for the separation of church and state here. Also some loco political fool has introduced an obvious religious pitch on license plates here in disregard of a normal $15 charge for what are otherwise specialty plates and has been challenged over it with the civil liberties union. Blatant disregard seems to be all too common for the mouthy and pushy war criminal in the White House and his obnoxious born again (or otherwise) money sucking religio politico crooked damned thug accomplices thoughout the US. Anyone who doesn’t care to live in a total theocracy had best learn to stand their ground or lose it to the self-centered and imposing obnoxious damned bastards.
I sometimes wish people would start a civil war in the USA, and then it would be clear who is the most violent, who would kill the most people. It would be the Christians, because they would see in that civil war a grand purpose.
We atheists know there is no grand purpose, nothing to kill or die for, in the words of John Lennon.
Seeing this kind of story really makes me with American Atheists would support the Secular Coalition for America, but sadly, they still refuse to do so.
Au Contraire, VJ, Lorie Lipman Brown and Herb Silverman were both at the recent convention, and they are working with the GAMPAC to achieve our common goal. Two PACs, one purpose.
David, does this mean that American Atheists will now be listed as a supporting organization of the Secular Coalition?
In his book Thy Kingdom Come: An Evangelical’s Lament, evangelical author Randall Balmer claims with compelling evidence that the religious right first coalesced because the Carter administration was looking at talking tax-exempt status away from the racist Bob Jones university, and perhaps from other religious institutions as well.
They only adopted the anti-abortion stance afterwards, in order to have a more emotionally enthralling topic to use to urge Christian voters to the polls.
writerdd what is ironic is that carter was the first candidate to wear his religion on his sleeve.
God Bless America…..A religious state
VJ — Not sure, but the alliance is there and growing.
One thing is clear, something has to change. I/we should not have to give our money to the spread of religious faith. I don’t know about everyone else on here, but there is no subject that gets my blood pumping as much as this one… When I tell some of my X-ian friends about this, they think it’s great which makes me even more upset. I need to just stop thinking about this for a while because I can feel my hair falling out as I type this. AAARRRGGGG!!!!
VJ and Dave S.:
The Secular Coalition of America is not a PAC. It is a lobbying organization that attempts to influence legislation by providing lawmakers with information on the positions being taken by the American Humanist Association.
The Godless Americans PAC is an electioneering organization that raises money to provide to candidates running for office so that the right persons become lawmakers who will listen to what AA and SCA has to say about protecting the First Amendment to the Constitution.
It is all politics and it is all dirty, but some of us have to do it.