Faith Based Initiatives

For most of my super early drive into the office this morning (I have a 6 AM training that I have to be at) I enjoyed the silence of the trip. The Drive Time Italian was silenced and I was not listening to Obama's book or a history of English. I was just enjoying the quiet.

But then, I figured I'd hear a little news, so I turn on NPR while wondering how much of their news was News and how much was just a mishmash of Press Releases edited slightly to be reporting. The reporter started in on the President's recent nominations who had withdrawn their names and noted to self that I needed to donate to NPR to keep their reporting worth listening to.

And then they switched to the Faith Based Initiatives mess left by Bush. Bush allowed religious groups to receive federal funds while discriminating against those they felt unfit for employment. The case they described was a woman who took a job with a Southern Baptist Church and fully disclosed her homosexuality and yet was let go, for unspecified reasons 6 months later, when parishioners saw a picture of her with her partner.

This case strikes me as wrong on so many levels. From what I've read of the New Testament, I don't recall Jesus not asking people if they were gay before healing them. He didn't stop to see if his apostles had any leanings. I seem to recall him talking about Love and Helping Others and all of us being sinners. By letting that woman go, they both discriminate against her and tell the gay people in the community that their assistance and initiatives are dependent on the sexuality of those in need. To me, that isn't Christian and I do not feel that my federal funds should be used for a group that is only willing to help those they deem worthy.

Can't we do better?