SecularFuture

I found these articles at http://www.whitehouse.gov when I looked up the word 'atheist' in their search engine. These Q&A quotes are from a press conference with Ari Fleischer about Federally Funded Religious Charities.

Enjoy ~



Q: Ari, I'm interested in whether the administration would support the denial of any assistance to anyone by a federally-funded religious organization because they were not -- they're atheists, they're not of the same religion? Can any of these charities deny any assistance -- food or whatever -- to someone who is not of the same religion or is an atheist?

MR. FLEISCHER: If you're asking about the hiring practices of religious organizations --

Q: No, we already got that --

MR. FLEISCHER: The providing of services? Let me take that. I think that's a legal question; let me take that question.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Q: I want to know, can these federally-funded religious charities, which, under the President's proposed program, can they deny assistance to non-believers or atheists --

MR. FLEISCHER: As I told you a half an hour ago, I do not have an answer for that question yet.

Q: Well, why don't you have an answer?

MR. FLEISCHER: Because you asked a half an hour ago. I didn't --

Q: No, I asked you yesterday.

MR. FLEISCHER: Yes, yesterday, you asked -- Helen, as always, I work very diligently to get you those answers. I do not have it today.

Q: I think that's a very significant thing, don't you?

MR. FLEISCHER: I'll try to get you that answer.


Sources:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/relea...0010711-3.html
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/relea...0010712-4.html

Defiant Heretic

That is disturbing.

Jet Grind

Sadly, I'm not surprised by this at all.

Feather

Yeah, well, atheists aren't citizens after all, right?

Muffinstuffer

Or maybe the guy just forgot like I do all the time, and tried to cover his @ss and got caught.

Entropic_Gnosis

If that is so does that mean that agnostics lilke myself can be citizens? And do i have to apply for a green card?

Godless Dave

I don't know.

Seeker630

Ari Fleischer aside--------This whole notion of "faith-based charity" using tax money is a real mind bender. All that's happening is that a private organization is re-distributing public money to clientele of their choosing. I see no "Charity" in that. Charity to me means that the church or whatever came up with the money on their own from their members. Charity means giving of one's own resources---not someone else's. So in a very real sense the so-called charitable organization is no longer providing the service, the taxpayer is.

It's easy to be charitable when your spending someone else's money. There is no sacrifice in that. Also, I think that there have been a couple of studies done which state that there is no evidence at all that religious institutions provide the services any better than non-religiious ones do. Anyone got a link to them?

Seeker630

Just an adendum to my last post---

There is of course a third option in cases like these. Lie to the f*ckers. If I seriously needed to have such tax-funded services, say drug rehab just as an example, I could just say I'm Catholic or Methodist or whatever, and they would have absolutely no way of knowing otherwise.

Yeah I know it would suck, but hey--you'd be getting your money's worth from them. This of course would assume a legitimate drug program, and not some bogus faith-healing or other junk like Narcanon from the Scientologists. It would also presume there was not a secular alternative available.

Vorkosigan

No, agnostics get the pale aqua card. Atheists have to apply for visas. Use form I-666.