Faith, Funds and the Feds
FEMA's recently announced pledge to reimburse churches and religious organizations for their charity work in the Gulf region has spawned a little storm surge in the reader forums.
"This, I personally feel, is not a good thing," writes June AJD. "Religious groups are not held to the same standards as not-for-profit non-religious organizations. They are not required to provide public accounting of funds received or how those funds are used. If the churches are prepared to provide itemized listings of the services and material goods provided...I might be more receptive to reimbursement. However, if ...religious organizations are able to present a bill for 'services' in any amount, without full disclosure of what those services were, I am very much opposed to my tax dollars being spent this way."
SmallVoic2 has another concern, wondering how much charity means when someone else is billed for your giving.
Goofticket is even more perturbed, calling charity reimbursement politics as usual. "This is insane!...This is playing into the political base of the GOP. Otherwise there would have been an announcement that every government and individual that helped would get some form of assistance."
Julisha2 says her church's relief efforts will be taxfree. "We will not seek any reimbursement from the government because we felt it was part of our Christian mission to help those affected by Katrina. How do you put a price tag on what you believe is extending the love of Christ by helping those in need?"
But KristinaN1 and a few other readers took the other side, arguing that churches deserve money for helping out and that the funding will not threaten the separation of church and state.
She was in a minority with most forum contributors sounding more like JK3046 who said that, "...I don't want to see one cent of my taxes going to 'faith based' groups when my taxes already were paid to FEMA who was supposed to take care of business and botched the job badly."
By Lindsay Howerton |
September 30, 2005; 2:45 PM ET
| Category:
National Issues
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Posted by: Candy | October 13, 2005 08:36 PM
Giving federal monies to churches is strictly unconstitutional and someone will bring it to the courts before long. No wonder this administration wants "evangelical christians" on the bench. I am truely amazed what contempt this administration has for our Constitution and how many Americans do not see it for what it is.
Posted by: Sully | October 14, 2005 10:56 AM
I have never been a supporter of the "faith based initiatives" of either Bush administration, but in this case, reimbursing churches makes sense. In my home town of Baton Rouge, churches--virutally all of them--became instant shelters as the city doubled in size in a matter of days. Had FEMA and the Red Cross, and our military been prepared for this disaster, this might not have been the case. Had the Army Corps of Engineers properly built the levees around New Orleans, many of these people would not have been homeless. These huge failures on our governments fault say to me that the church communities all over the gulf coast that did the job our government failed to do should be reimbursed.
Posted by: Louisiana | October 30, 2005 07:38 AM
god is only a figment of the imaginiation of those who believe in an almighty. why do churches want money when its the root of all evil anyway?
Posted by: george w. bush | November 1, 2005 01:55 PM
Letter to all La Bond Commission Members,
Dear Bond Commission Member,
In Louisiana, a state drowning in water and political corruption, money continues to flow like water to build Reservoirs.
While citizens statewide are fighting building 14 new Reservoirs, Hurricane Katrina breached a levee, and a man made reservoir flooded and destroyed New Orleans.
The October 20, 2005 Bond Commission meeting lists $ 3.2 Million for Reservoirs while money has been rescinded for many worthwhile projects.
Will Reservoirs continue to be one of our top priorities, and a foolish waste of our tax money? With the budget problems Louisiana faces this money is badly needed elsewhere.
Should the old and poor suffer, and taxpayers spend $40 million to $50 million a lake to make developers wealthy? Will Louisiana change it's foolish ways, and Politics as usual?
With Louisiana's budget problems it is foolish to fund projects requiring continued funding year after year that we can't afford.
The proposed Washington parish Reservoir will desecrate cemeteries, and take the homes of the old and poor. It is not too late to stop the waste of money on this foolish project before construction begins.
Please, stop the waste of taxpayers' money for unneeded foolish pork barrel reservoirs.
Sincerely,
James Moore
Community Preservation Alliance http://www.angelfire.com/gundam/reservoir/
Listen to a 10 minute recording of Bond Comm. meeting 10/20/05.
http://oakgrovecommunity.tripod.com/nevers-bond.htm
Posted by: James Moore | November 10, 2005 12:36 PM
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Go to the Us Dept of Education webite. Not sure if it is still the same, but in Sept. most of the suggested locations for donations were for private Christian schools. There were very few public schools listed.