Dedicated to the
Sovereignty of
Missourians
           

Faith Based Initiatives - The REAL Problem

02/03/2001

President Bush's proposal to fund private social service organizations has been met with mixed reviews among so-called conservatives. One might expect democrats and other liberals to oppose anything that Bush proposes, but why would republicans and conservatives be contending over anything that promoted religion in America?

The arguments on both sides are appealing. It's a good idea to channel federal funds through private "faith based" organizations because those organizations have proven to be much more efficient and productive than the federal government, one side says. They go on to point out, (correctly, I might add), that the Constitution does not really say that there must exist a "separation of church and state". The sharp ones even point out that the First Amendment actually only prohibits the federal Congress from establishing a state religion.

The other "conservative" argument takes into account the big picture. They claim that what works now may not work five or ten years from now and federal involvement has a tendency to spoil things. History tells us that the federal government tends to create a dependency with easy money and then ultimately control the new addict with unreasonable mandates. One can correctly conclude from this side's argument that the president's idea is the largest federal power grab since Hillary's plan to socialize health care.

So there we have it, "conservatives" on both sides rendering seemingly reasonable arguments - what's a body to think?

The answer comes from the Constitutional Conservative camp. These true harbingers of the forefathers plan ask, "Where is the constitutional authority for ANY federal involvement in benevolent and charitable activities?".

As usual, we have allowed the liberals to frame the debate, like the slick door to door salesman; "Do you want the red one or the blue one?" Well, I don't want either!

Let's not settle for the red herring of federal funding to faith based organizations, but neither let us accept the statist involvement of Big Brother in the areas that the Constitution clearly reserves to the several states and the people in the Tenth Amendment.

ps Listen to Oliver North respond to a call about this issue from Missouri First member, Niki Calzone at https://www.mofirst.org/news/niki_v_ollie.wav
https://www.mofirst.org/news/niki_v_ollie.rm

By: Ron Calzone
Feedback to the author


Missouri First Main Page


Copyright 2000 Missouri First, Inc.
info@mofirst.org
Phone:

Home - - Charter - - Essays - - Projects - - MO History - - MF News -
- Messages - - Links - - Search - - Contacts - - Join - - Contribute