"When the government puts its imprimatur on a particular religion it conveys a message of exclusion to all those who do not adhere to the favored beliefs. A government cannot be premised on the belief that all persons are created equal when it asserts that God prefers some." Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun in Lee v. Weisman (90-1014), 505 U.S. 577 (1992)...
And marching forward with eyes wide shut, Bush issued executive orders aimed at granting evangelicals access to federal funding and federal contracts and grants, despite two centuries of law and policy to the contrary. “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion” reads the first Amendment to the United States Constitution, and Bush failed to win Congressional approval of his faith-based plan after two years of trying. So in December 2002 the Bush Administration took matters into its own hands and issued Executive Order 13279: Equal Protection of the Laws for Faith-based and Community Organizations. Section 4 of the order allows federal agencies to award grants or contracts to religious organizations that discriminate in hiring for publicly funded positions on the basis of religion...
In Chris Mooney’s report “W’s Christian Nation” we learn that in October 2002, the Department of Health and Human Services gave $30 million to 21 religious and community groups as part of the faith-based program. $500,000 went to Pat Robertson's Operation Blessing. $700,000 went to the National Center for Faith-Based Initiative, founded by Bishop Harold Calvin Ray, who has declared church-state separation "a fiction." All the religious recipients of Health and Human Services grants were connected to Christian ministries, mostly evangelical ones.
Excerpted from Abstinence, Suffering, and Christianity - The Bush Administration’s Faith-Based Policies. Read more at Buy Blue.
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