Faith-Based Initiatives

As yet another example of the convergence of the Republican and Democratic platforms, we now see Barack Obama proclaiming his support of “faith-based initiatives.”

While the Republican candidate John McCain enthusiastically draws from the Democratic playbook – for instance, offering $300 million of other people’s money as a prize to develop a “better car battery” – the Democratic candidate Barack Obama is jumping on the Republican’s evangelical bandwagon, offering $500 million per year (again, of other people’s money) to fund “faith-based service programs across the country and help send one million disadvantaged children to summer sessions run by religious groups.”(Note 1.)

That’s right. The Democratic candidate is advancing the very policy that President Bush introduced almost the instant he became President, the centerpiece of his “compassionate conservatism.”

photo from The New York Times

The name of Mr. Obama’s plan is the “Council for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships,” a title that nicely draws together the religious (“faith-based”) and the tribal/collectivist (“neighborhood”) premises that underpin the policy. There’s even a hint of the notion – one that I would call “friendly fascism” to play off of Mr. Bush's “compassionate conservatism” – that a proper society represents a “partnership” between the government and private groups. “I know there are some who bristle at the notion that faith has a place in the public square,” said Mr. Obama, “but the fact is, leaders in both parties have recognized the value of a partnership between the White House and faith-based groups.”(Note 2, emphasis mine.)

Too true. Both parties have indeed plunged headlong into breaking down the barriers between the church and the state.


NOTES
1. Wall Street Journal, Obama Courts Religious Vote in Appalachian Ohio, 2 Jul 2008, p. A-5.
2. New York Times, Obama Wants to Expand Role of Religious Groups, 2 Jul 2008.