Freethought & Rationalism Archive

crazyfingers · 09-17-2002, 08:41 AM

This <a href="http://www.aclu.org/action/care107.html" target="_blank">ACLU Action Alert</a> came out this morning.

Quote:

Support Civil Rights: Oppose The Faith-Based Initiative!

Over a year ago, amid great controversy, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 7, a bill that would implement President George W. Bush's plan to give taxpayer dollars to religious organizations to provide social services.
Recent reports now suggest that the sponsors of the Senate version of President Bush's faith-based initiative, Senators Rick Santorum (R-PA) and Joseph Lieberman (D-CT), are working to cut a deal to bring the bill to the floor. While the Lieberman/Santorum bill, S. 1924, the "Charity Aid, Recovery and Empowerment (CARE) Act," has some improvements over the House version, it continues to jeopardize civil rights, privacy and religious freedom because it does not include explicit prohibitions against discrimination.

* snip *

The CARE Act would allow for taxpayer-funded discrimination.

Under the Lieberman/Santorum proposal, there is no explicit prohibition against discrimination. Without this protection, religious organizations would be allowed to discriminate against applicants for jobs on the basis of religion, marital status, sexual orientation, gender, HIV status or any other characteristic that a religious organization finds objectionable.

The CARE Act would fund proselytization.

Religion is a very personal and private belief that varies from individual to individual. We need to protect each person's religious freedom, including the freedom to receive services without being forced to listen to another's religious beliefs. The Lieberman/Santorum does not explicitly prohibit proselytizing in publicly funded social service programs. Even the House version of the faith-based initiative contained a ban against proselytization during the provision of publicly funded social services. It also required that any religious activity had to take place apart from the provision of public services and must be completely voluntary on behalf of beneficiaries. Even these basic protections were stripped from the CARE Act.

For those who are not familiar, ACLU action alerts make it easy to fax your senators and reps in congress.

[ September 17, 2002: Message edited by: crazyfingers ]</p>

Nikolai · 09-18-2002, 05:18 PM

I wrote about it to Bush something like 4 months ago, and the responce was the usual BS trying to justify it. I really wonder if even 10000 letters a day would make Shrub change his stance...

crazyfingers · 09-18-2002, 05:27 PM

Probably not the Shrub, but letters to uncommitted Senators and Reps could do some good. That's what these action alerts are for.

Thread Tools	Search this Thread
Show Printable Version	Search this Thread: Advanced Search

09-18-2002, 05:18 PM	#2
Nikolai Regular Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Richmond, Virginia Posts: 422	I wrote about it to Bush something like 4 months ago, and the responce was the usual BS trying to justify it. I really wonder if even 10000 letters a day would make Shrub change his stance...

09-18-2002, 05:27 PM	#3
crazyfingers Contributor Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: Massachusetts, USA Posts: 13,699	Probably not the Shrub, but letters to uncommitted Senators and Reps could do some good. That's what these action alerts are for.

Freethought & Rationalism Archive

The archives are read only.