Barack Obama - Faith Based Fallout

Greetings,

Recently both Senator Obama and Senator McCain appeared at Pastor Rick Warren's Saddleback Church and spoke separately in a candidate forum. One thing that was brought up was faith based initiatives. Senator Obama's answer is long and muddy but listen carefully about how addresses discrimination:



Maybe it's me but again I found his answer offensive and telling. Replay it a few times to digest it if you must and then see if you agree with me.

1) Don't worry, I won't have the Federal government try to pick your Pastor.

WHOA! Is did he think or contemplate this that he even brings it up?

2) Programs that are Federally funded will not be able to discriminate.

So if my church receives money for a soup kitchen and it is federally supported, my Church may be forced to hire someone who is a homosexual or may belong to a controversial faith like Wicca when those things are forbidden by my Church (and the Word of God for that matter!)?

Senator Obama did speak the truth on one matter, "The Devil is in the details".

Now this brings up another concern of mine, Barack Obama supported the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) which passed the House but was not taken up by the Senate in 2007, probably because it did not have enough votes and President Bush threatened to veto it. What was bad about ENDA? It was esentially a Gay-Rights bill that did the following:

• Turn groups like the Boy Scouts into targets of federally funded lawsuits. While he was Vice President, Al Gore said on Good Morning America, in answer to a question about the Boy Scouts, that he hoped ENDA would do away with all “discrimination” by public and private groups.

• Constitute a major expansion of federal power over the workplace and create a new way for the government to manipulate employers. ENDA’s intent is to create grounds for lawsuits. By injecting sexuality into civil rights law, ENDA opens a Pandora’s box of ways for the government to dictate to businesses.

• Make people’s sexual temptations a source of material for federal lawsuits. The law properly deals with actions, not beliefs. ENDA creates a new class based on the fuzzy grounds of perception and intention. This is far removed from laws designed to end racial discrimination, because not only is race evident but also it has no moral aspect. Sexual behavior is fraught with moral consequences.

So lets play 'make believe' for a minute, lets say you are a member of a Catholic or Lutheran Church that has a Scouting troop and a ministry to the poor - not unimaginable at all. Let's say Barack Obama gets elected president. Lets go one step further and say he has a Democratic majority in Congress and gets what he wants at both the Executive and Legislative level. He makes sweeping changes to both the office of Faith Based Initiatives and Congress passes ENDA.

Oh sure, the government can't pick your pastor (yet) but the Federal government can have a hand in telling you who you must hire for your soup kitchen and who you must admit into your Scouting group, even if it is a denominationally based unit.

Rep. Timothy Walberg (R-MI) pointed out that ENDA “… would cause significant problems to religious bookstores … to the Boy Scouts, religious day care centers, and religious summer camps that have clearly defined missions.” (source)

And this is just the beginning of sorrows if Barack Obama gets elected:

ACLU Members For Obama

Barack Obama on Civil Liberties

Scouting has been a litigation target of the ACLU for it's exclusion of homosexuals and atheists:

LEADERSHIP

The ACLU vs. the Boy Scouts

And these lawsuits have happened at government (taxpayer) expense:

Stop Paying For The Secularization of America

ACLU ruins Boy Scout camp

Boy Scouts defeat ACLU

Has Barack Obama (or his supporters) thought through what this would mean in the real world where the rubber hits the road?

Rank	Industry	Total
1	Lawyers/Law Firms	$20,722,629

(Source - Opensecrets.org)

Yep, over $20 Million from lawyers

Also:

Moveon.org $347,463

So if you want to sue Churches and sue the Boy Scouts, vote for Barack Obama.

TTFN,

Jim