If we believe our national leaders, God is partial to the Presidents of the United States.
Jimmy
Carter claimed a personal relationship with the Big Fella. So did
Ronald Reagan.
Dubya was a praying man, who claimed that God alone
(with a little help from Laura) kept him off the bottle and walking the
straight path to global supremacy. Under his administration, the
United States instituted a way to pay tax dollars to the churches doing
the work they should do without the money.
Dubya created a
whole new branch of government, and called it good. The Center for
Faith-Based and Community Initiatives has a clergy man at the helm, and
billions of dollars in its coffers.
They fund everything. I mean
everything. They fund the presence of religious groups in federal
prisons with the clear and certain purpose of converting offenders to
the love of Jesus Christ. They fund health initiatives, for heaven's
sake - claiming faith-based groups can assist in a pandemic.
Our
own dear, darling, blessed Mr. Obama is a faith-based initiative fan as
well. Makes sense. He's ordained President of the United States. He
sitteth at the right hand.
So, let me put the record straight, right here and now.
Before
I start my rant, remember; I'm an ordained Presbyterian Pastor. And
clergy around the nation know who and what the church is.
Granted, it
is many things. It is not, however, a social service agency.
Sunday-Go-To-Meeting protestants are not trained, nor are they equipped
to negotiate housing, jobs, child custody and parole for convicted and
released sex offenders.
Here in Minnesota, our legislature sends
your hard-earned tax dollars down that hole, however. For many years the Department of Corrections has held a contract with Inner Freedom
Initiative, a faith-based program instigated by Chuck Colson, former
Watergate conspirator.
The program cherry picks offenders from the
prison population, isolates them in tax funded facilities, teaches them
Christian principles and when they are fully "disciplined," gives them
special privileges while they are incarcerated and promises special
benefits when they are released.
One of these freedoms
apparently, is the freedom to form a prison "gang;" a group of
righteous offenders, roaming the prison grounds together, professing
eternal truths that other offenders may not access because they are not
"chosen" into the IFI program.
Other freedoms as well - freedom to access housing in your neighborhood when released. A "mentor" on the outside, and a job.
None
of this is available, mind you, if the offender is a Presbyterian,
Methodist, Roman Catholic or Jew who refused the indoctrination of the
program.
In the real world, the Salvation Army offers
resources to poor people. Food, shelter, clothing - but first they must
submit to a sermon and a little moralizing.
A little tough
for some poor folks to take, but they have a choice. If they want the
free food, they'll listen to the free message. The Army raises charity
funds for these services - there are no other strings attached.
In
the prisons, that ain't the case.
Imagine yourself incarcerated for
ten years. Your family abandons you - your church ignores you - your
life, it seems, is over.
But if you confess
Jesus Christ as Lord and savior, give yourself over to the gang of
religious thugs running the IFI program, submit to their tenants and
relinquish your will, your life will be easier on the "inside."
You learn also that life on the outside
will be easier as well.
So, what do you do?
Do you give up your Catholicism? Do you turn
your back on your Lutheran upbringing?
You're all ready in prison - why
not throw it all away and become a frickin' Evangelical?
I'll tell you why.
Because faith is not for sale.
No
matter how many tax dollars they throw at it. No matter what the Department of Corrections says.
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