Just saw this article today that talks about changes during the Bush administration to the Salvation Army.

During the last rant about annoyance about bell-ringers, the consensus seemed to go to the fact that overall the Salvation Army seemed to do a great deal of good and had low overhead. A number of folks proclaimed that there was little emphasis on religion and conversion when bestowing help and aide to people.

Up until recently, that consensus seemed to be correct. The organization had workers from all faiths and their primary concern was aid to the disaffected.

However, since the Faith Based Initiative began pumping public money into the the SA's coffers, there apparently has been in sea change in how business is done.

Welcome to Faith-Based America

I'm reading more and more about how this form of Christian bullying is infusing itself into organizations that are often the recipients of large amounts of public money or even in some cases direct governmental control. I've read some disturbing articles about this type of tactic within our military.

Obama stated during his campaign that he supported the Faith-Based Initiative but always said that the secular portions of aid organizations would have strict guidelines to ensure that proselytizing would not be allowed. It's how it used to work. Somehow, during the Bush reign, that requirement not only got ignored but it almost seems as if the opposite was encouraged.

People on both sides of the aisle should be up in arms in support of bolstering our separation of church and state. That ideal was not put in place to protect only atheists and people of alternative and minority faiths but to also protect the major Christian faiths from the interference of the government. Nobody wins when they mix.

Art