Conservative Groups Declare Obama's Stimulus Bill a War on Prayer
A provision in the House-passed stimulus bill -- banning money to be used to renovate schools from being spent on facilities that allow "religious worship" -- has ignited fury among those who claim it discriminates on the basis of faith and violates the right to free speech.
Democrats in Congress have declared war on prayer, say conservative groups who object to a provision in the stimulus bill that was passed by the House of Representatives last week.
The provision bans money designated for school renovation from being spent on facilities that allow "religious worship." It has ignited a fury among critics who say it violates the First Amendment and is an attempt to prevent religious practice in schools.
According to the bill, which the Democratic-controlled House passed despite unanimous Republican opposition, funds are prohibited from being used for the "modernization, renovation, or repair" of facilities that allow "sectarian instruction, religious worship or a school or department of divinity."
Critics say that could include public schools that permit religious groups to meet on campus. The House provided $20 billion for the infrastructure improvements, of which $6 billion would go to higher education facilities where the limitations would be applied.
"What the government is doing is discriminating against religious viewpoints," said Mathew Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, a Washington-based nonprofit organization that works to advance religious freedom.
"President Obama's version of faith-based initiatives is to remove the faith from initiative," said Staver, who believes Obama has "a completely different view on faith" from what he said during his presidential campaign.
The Handouts bill. Its seems that the bill is more conderned to appease democratic contrituencies with Gov money that putting the money were it is really needed.
I'm very worried by the future of the US dollar now.
__________________ ""Wisdom enters through love, silence, and mortification. It is great wisdom to know how to be silent and to look at neither the remarks, nor the deeds, nor the lives of others." "Look for Christ Our Lord in everyone and you will then have respect and reverence for all." St. John of the Cross, OCD. "Any fundamentalism that claims to know precisely God's will is not a viable church structure within God's evolving creation, which brings forth ever greater freedom." "The price for the ability to love God in freedom, the only way love is possible, is the enormous amount of suffering we find in creation."
Karl Schmitz Moorman, German Catholic biologist. "Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us and on the whole world."
from the Trisagion and the Divine Mercy Chaplet.
I think the stimulus bill is vitally important to prevent another Republican Great Depression. However, this provision is irrelevant and uncalled for in my view, and sounds like it stands a decent chance of being stripped out in the Senate, where the minority party and individual Senators have more rights. Generally speaking, regardless of what party is in power, the bills that come out of the House tend to be more ideologically extreme, and then the Senate tends to pass a more moderate version, and then the two versions are reconciled with a compromise in committee later on.
Last edited by Fish and Bread; 6th February 2009 at 03:05 PM.
I wonder how we would feel if tax payer money in these times were used to help renovate the mosque downtown that teaches children to read. I'm sure some of us are cool with that. But for those who aren't, this seems a logical step then. Am I missing something ? (totally possible).
While I don't think this bill is gonna really do much(sincce religious activities after school usually just use the regular school rooms), it still is a gouge to the religious community pretty much telling them they're disdain for anything christian in schools.
I think the stimulus bill is vitally important to prevent another Republican Great Depression.
A common Democratic Myth. FDR might has made the Depression longer and deeper in a power grap that changed the US forever. Now the New Deals chickens have come to roost. Judgement day is near. We are all to pay for the sins of FDR and Lord Keynes.
There are three schools of thoughs on the Great Depression, the Keynesians (Samuelson, Kurgman, Stigliz, Sachs) who is dominant in Academy and in Obama's circles, the Monetarist of the Chicago School (Greenspan, Volker) and the Vienese School (good old Ron Paul) that is a minority now but in my opinion has given the best assement of all the Crisis. Years after this happened and in my opinion are right to call Obama Stimulus plan, the Paying Democratic Party Constituencies with Public Debt Plan.
Is not going to solve anything. The trainwreck my last more to come but is going to be much harder. And the US will be broke.
As a foreigner we all are worried now to find ways for the US black hole to swallow us first before it vanishes. The fact that Buffet and Soros, two economic hit men are in Obama's train mean that they are planing to make the entire World pays for the US sins.
Here is a very good article on the culprits of the current crisis, too bad the autors left out the culprits in Academia, both the Monetarist Chicago Boys and the Ivy League Keynesians. They after all former the opinions the culprits quoted here used to destroy the world's economy. And I loved the honesty coming from a left wing newspaper that is totally missing in the very partisan US media. It takes guts to name Clinton, Soros and Chris Dodds among the culprits.
__________________ ""Wisdom enters through love, silence, and mortification. It is great wisdom to know how to be silent and to look at neither the remarks, nor the deeds, nor the lives of others." "Look for Christ Our Lord in everyone and you will then have respect and reverence for all." St. John of the Cross, OCD. "Any fundamentalism that claims to know precisely God's will is not a viable church structure within God's evolving creation, which brings forth ever greater freedom." "The price for the ability to love God in freedom, the only way love is possible, is the enormous amount of suffering we find in creation."
Karl Schmitz Moorman, German Catholic biologist. "Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us and on the whole world."
from the Trisagion and the Divine Mercy Chaplet.
Last edited by InTheCloud; 6th February 2009 at 04:28 PM.
Conservative Groups Declare Obama's Stimulus Bill a War on Prayer 
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