Obama Throws Us Another Bone

The unbelievers were mentioned again! OMG! This time it was during a prayer breakfast of all things!

Obama throws secular organizations a bone!

I never liked the idea of the federal government funding church groups. That was Bush's brainchild. Let's suck up to the religious right and get some votes by putting money in their pockets.

But what about secular groups who want to help out communities without indoctrinating them into a religion? NO SOUP FOR YOU!

But now Obama has widened the scope of the faith based support to include any organization that wants to help their communities.

This is his prayer...

I like this part:

The goal of this office will not be to favor one religious group over another – or even religious groups over secular groups. It will simply be to work on behalf of those organizations that want to work on behalf of our communities, and to do so without blurring the line that our founders wisely drew between church and state. This work is important, because whether it’s a secular group advising families facing foreclosure or faith-based groups providing job-training to those who need work, few are closer to what’s happening on our streets and in our neighborhoods than these organizations. People trust them. Communities rely on them. And we will help them.

Some of the talk seems a bit "pie in the sky" but at least he seems to be making an effort at removing the us versus them mentality that penetrates this country so much:

I raise this history because far too often, we have seen faith wielded as a tool to divide us from one another – as an excuse for prejudice and intolerance. Wars have been waged. Innocents have been slaughtered. For centuries, entire religions have been persecuted, all in the name of perceived righteousness.
There is no doubt that the very nature of faith means that some of our beliefs will never be the same. We read from different texts. We follow different edicts. We subscribe to different accounts of how we came to be here and where we’re going next – and some subscribe to no faith at all.

But this part I disagree with:

But no matter what we choose to believe, let us remember that there is no religion whose central tenet is hate. There is no God who condones taking the life of an innocent human being. This much we know.

Um...read the old testament! How many babies are slaughtered? So, yeah, he's kissing ass and ignoring the bullshit to try to form a happy consensus. Pie in the sky? Time will tell.

For those that think this whole thing should be disbanded, imagine if there were no faith base initiative created by Bush and Obama came along and wanted to form something similar but entirely secular. People would be screaming SOCIALIST! OMG! HE WANTS US TO BE COMMIE ZOMBIES! At least this way he can try to do some good at the community level by hijacking Bush's brainchild. And for that, I think he's a smart man.