As I listened to NPR this afternoon I caught the end of a story about a speech given by Obama today. I didn’t hear who the audience was or what the topic was. All I heard was him saying, “…they’re usually working to help people of all faiths or of no faith at all.”
Wow, I thought. Almost brave of him to allude to non-believers, atheists and humanists. He nearly put us on equal footing with the theists. Don’t piss off the religious, Barack. Rationalists are far more forgiving and understanding. Unfortunately we’re also in the minority and represent too few votes to make a huge impact on the candidates or the party and their platform. So we’re safer to ignore than the faithful.
Non-believers are concerned with the issues that will affect all of humanity or that attempt to enslave the public forum to the rules and regulations (prejudices, phobias and myths) of a particular sect of theism.
You can trust a non-believer to give you straight information regarding issues of finance, foreign relations and military policy. Issues that require reasoning, logic and good old common sense best be left to those who determine their own agendas, rather than those who wish to inflict the agenda of their personal imaginary friend on the entire country.
In short, go ahead and pander to the religious to get their votes. But once you’re elected and if you are seriously concerned for not just the people of the country you now lead but for humanity everywhere, you would be well advised to seek council from those who do not put their allegiance to this country below their allegiance to a “higher power”.
So I got home a little while ago and thought I should blog about this and give the man a little credit.
First, though, I wanted to check out the whole story for some background.
July 1 (Bloomberg) — Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said he would spend at least $500 million a year to promote community aid programs run by faith-based groups.
The proposal would expand an initiative put in place by President George W. Bush to aid religious organizations performing social service work, which Obama said “never fully completed its mission or fulfilled its promise.”
Obama, a former community organizer in Chicago, would create a new White House office for the President’s Council for Faith- Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Among other things, the council would help train faith-based groups on how to apply for federal grants and set up a program to provide summer educational opportunities for 1 million low-income children.
“While these groups are often made up of folks who’ve come together around a common faith, they’re usually working to help people of all faiths or of no faith at all,” Obama said today in Zanesville, Ohio. “Change comes not from the top down, but from the bottom up, and few are closer to the people than our churches, synagogues, temples, and mosques.” (Source: Bloomberg)
Damnit, Barack. Here I had all these positive thoughts about what I perceived as a small nod to the “community” of non-believers and I find out that your significant comment wasn’t exciting or brave. No one is grateful to the man who smuggles Cuban cigars by packing them in piles of manure.
Supporting faith-based programs with our tax dollars is a violation of the Constitution you want to swear to uphold. And if the requirements are written such that our money can’t be used in any way to pay for purely religious activities (no “busing people to mass in order to earn a dinner” type homeless shelters, for example), then why should faith even be a criteria? Why not use everyone’s money to support worthwhile social outreaches regardless of their motivation? Rev. Phelps is a faith-based organization. Can he apply for federal money to pay off his well-earned bankruptcy?
Barack, you’ve pissed me off. If I voted you’d be in danger of losing mine. As Carlin explains, since I don’t vote, I have every right to complain when our government, its representatives or its policies head toward the abyss of stupidity, illegality and/or theocracy.
I take back all the nice things I wrote above the quote.
