Entitlement spending

In scanning coverage of Barack Obama’s announcement on Tuesday that he plans to expand President Bush’s faith-based office, I was struck by the tone of the comments from two leading evangelicals in The New York Times’ reporting. At issue is whether churches, mosques or temples that receive federal grants can disciminate in hiring based on […]

In scanning coverage of Barack Obama’s announcement on Tuesday that he plans to expand President Bush’s faith-based office, I was struck by the tone of the comments from two leading evangelicals in The New York Times’ reporting.

At issue is whether churches, mosques or temples that receive federal grants can disciminate in hiring based on faith, or proselytize. Bush thinks there should be no restrictions; Obama says “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.”

Richard Cizik of the National Association of Evangelicals, and Richard Land of the Southern Baptists’ public policy shop. were asked to weigh in. They came across with an unusual sense of entitlement, as if churches are entitled to this money, and are entitled to do with it as they will. Here they are, as reported in The Times:


Cizik: “For those of who us who believe in protecting the integrity of our religious institutions, this is a fundamental right. He’s rolling back the Bush protections. That’s extremely disappointing.”

Land: “If you can’t hire people within your faith community, then you’ve lost the distinctive that is the reason why faith-based programs exist in the first place.”

Excuse me, gentlemen, but you should know better.

No one would ever dispute a Catholic church’s “fundamental right” to hire a Catholic organist, or for a Baptist day school to hire only Baptist caretakers. But there is no “fundamental right” to hire only Baptists if that day school is receiving federal funds. Do whatever you want with your own money; but never think that Uncle Sam’s dime doesn’t come with a few strings.

And Richard Land, no one is talking about not being able ot “hire poeple within your faith community.” The issue is whether you can hire only those people-when Uncle Sam is footing the bill.

Here’s a simple solution: don’t take the money. If you can’t abide the restrictions, then don’t take the money.

We can have all the arguments we want about which approach-Bush or Obama-is better, but it seems silly to me to be talking about “fundamental rights” that do not exist and non-existent threats that no one seems to be making.


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