US News
Obama to expand faith-based groups with eye on religious voters
Jul 1, 2008, 20:48 GMT
Washington - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Tuesday promised to boost government backing of faith-based groups that are active in their local communities, expanding President George W Bush's initiatives in a bid to wrest some conservative religious voters from the Republican camp.
Obama said non-profit faith-based and secular groups alike were needed to tackle poverty in the United States, though religious groups would have to abide by non-discrimination laws and other checks on their programmes if they received government funding.
'I know there are some who bristle at the notion that faith has a place in the public square,' Obama said in a speech from Zanesville, Ohio.
'I believe deeply in the separation of church and state, but I don't believe this partnership will endanger that idea,' he said.
Bush has been one of the most vocal presidents on the need to support religious groups in community service, creating a new Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives upon entering the White House.
Obama said the Bush administration's efforts have been underfunded and often used to promote 'partisan interests,' by aiding groups in swing states that supported conservative causes.
Obama promised a 'new commitment' to the programme, including more aggressive promotion to enlist multi-faith groups that have not sought government funding in the past.
'It will be a critical part of my administration,' he said.
Obama was raised predominantly in Hawaii in a non-religious family and was only baptized a Christian as an adult, but he has been more outspoken about his faith than most recent Democratic presidential candidates.
The Illinois senator also worked with faith groups and others as a community organizer in Chicago before entering politics, and has regularly argued that Democrats should not be ceding ground to the Republican Party when it comes to religious voters.
'I didn't grow up in a particularly religious household. But my experience in Chicago showed me how faith and values could be an anchor in my life,' Obama said.
Protestant evangelicals, which form about one-quarter of the US electorate, have been a reliable voting block for Republicans in recent elections. But some evangelical leaders have expressed reservations about the party's presumptive nominee John McCain, who has typically been more reserved in discussing his Christian faith.
Obama said that groups of all faiths needed to be mobilized to combat poverty and reduce crime in inner cities.
'If we're going to do something about the injustice of millions of children living in extreme poverty, we need interfaith coalitions ... standing up for the powerless,' he said.
COMMENT
blog comments powered by DisqusLatest Headlines in US
- 1. Mitt Romney Addresses Tea Party Summit Pictures
- 2. Seven injured as US Navy plane crashes into apartments
- 3. At least three injured in US Navy plane crash
- 4. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, others to face death penalty trial
- 5. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, four others to face death penalty trial
Older Talkback
page: 1
Bollocks to Hussein Obama and his Muslim tribe of religious insurgents.
You mentioned the price of UK petrol in one of your masterpieces.
As a devoted disciple of your unexpurgated and vast intellectual knowledge, I have just filled up with Premium Unleaded at my UK petrol tax oasis and it cost me £1.21 per litre or $2.412 per litre. That is $9.166 per US gallon in the UK.
You pay $4 per US gallon, less than half our price.
10 gallons would cost you $92 in the UK. You pay $40.
The UK tax monster gobbles up two taxes on petrol ; the duty and the VAT,
making a total tax of about 75%. Probably the highest in the world.
So, for us, fuel costs are dirt cheap ! It is the tax applied as a percentage that makes it look expensive.
See ya ESS PEE, now you can get on with that black oaf Obama.
So you are paying about $6.88/gallon in taxes for gasoline, right? Subtract the taxes and you are actually paying $2.29/gallon. We are paying something around $4.00/gallon with taxes and less taxes it works out to something around $3.50/gallon. What are you crying about? You are paying $1.21/gallon less for gasoline than we are.
Oh, wait. Neither of us has taken the cap and trade scheme into account. I wonder what that adds to your fuel bill. I suppose we'll know after the elections here in the US are over. If we took cap and trade into account, you are likely paying something like $1.29/gallon for gasoline.
This is miraculous when you think about it. The price of petroleum right now is running over $3.00/gallon. I suppose you'll be paying around $18.00/gallon out of pocket by November. Of course, we don't get all those lovely benefits you get from your tax structure.
Some people have all the luck.
When did charity need handouts? Isn't the definition of charity the act of giving (to people), not taking from people (government handouts). This idea that charity needs to be on the government dole is really bizarre. It contradicts the notion of charity, subverts the process and makes religious groups greedy.
On the other hand, if it encumbers churches and makes them not hate gays, muslims and people different from them and forces them to give everyone equal job opportunity no matter what their faith, sexual orientation, sex/children out of marriage, etc. then I say it is probably a good compromise.
Greedy churches get money to dole out and in return they have to obey anti-descrimination laws.
...get Clark to assasinate MCCain and then run to the church thing.
Obama is no dummy. he reminds me of both Clinton AND Bush...
TO NOHARNESS
You are as balmy on figures as you are on politics.
You indescribable moron. IT IS NOT THE TAX THAT MATTERS, IT IS WHAT YOU PAY OUT OF YOUR WALLET. REAL money NOHARNESS and if tax either elevates or lowers that price relative to the basic cost, then so be it.
I know you pay damn all tax relative to other countries, just like you get petrol at give away prices and most other things at cut prices to keep your cost of living at ultra-low levels.
YOU PAY just over $4 per US gallon, WE PAY just over $9. OUT OF OUR WALLETS YOU IDIOT, JUST LIKE YOU. We don`t laugh because when we deduct our massive 75% tax, our petrol is less than yours.
If the cost of petrol to us without tax is lower than yours without tax, then it is your petrol companies that are ripping you off, not your Government like ours do.
Go back to your counting beads and see if you get this answer ;-
UK ; 1 + 3 = 4 against US ; 1.5 + 0.5 = 2
OK, I`ll explain it dumb-arse ; COST OF PETROL + TAX = WHAT YOU PAY
============
THE COST OF PETROL AT THE PUMP IN THE US IS HALF THE PRICE OF THAT IN THE UK.
God, how can I be any simpler, I`ll tell you what - go away and tuck yourself up with a bottle of Jack Daniel`s ( at a THIRD the cost of ours )
and think it out. Good luck. Have the Aspirin's and ice bag ready.
A survey was conducted a while back that proved that conservatives,particularly faith based conservatives, give more to charity than their liberal counterparts. This was regardless of those conservative economic standing. Look it up yourselves, I'm tired.
March to Nationanlize US Oil Industry held on 9/11/08 in Los Angeles, CA
The march is scheduled for September 11, 2008 at the Federal Building 11000 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA, Usa.
Congress WILL nationalize the oil industry!
CHANGE for America, for Americans.
THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC
A Sovereign Republic
'in a bid to wrest some conservative religious voters from the Republican camp'
LOL! Good luck with that, because after they read abput Baracks stance on baby killing (Not abortion, but baby killing) it isn't going to happen:
'I began to dislike Obama when I discovered that while in the Illinois state legislature in 2002, he voted against the Induced Birth Infant Liability Act. The bill was designed to extend the same medical care to babies who happen to survive an abortion attempt as is enjoyed by all babies born alive.
I couldn't believe anyone would vote against such a bill. In fact, when a similar measure-- the Born Alive Infant Protection Act-- was brought before the U.S. Senate, not one Senator voted against it. Even NARAL Pro-Choice America didn't oppose the bill.
Admittedly, I'm a bit of a curmudgeon. It's difficult for me to like someone who's eager to extend a panoply of constitutional rights to terrorists but who refuses to provide the most fundamental rights to a living, breathing infant..[....]
I would wager... that if more people knew about Obama's disregard for babies who have the audacity to survive an abortion, there would be more scrutiny and less adulation.
www.americanthinker.com/2008/06/obamas_callous_indifference.html
RE:'OK, I`ll explain it dumb-arse ; COST OF PETROL + TAX = WHAT YOU PAY'
Yes, I do understand that, but the citizens of the UK ELECTED the officials that are saddling you with these exorbitant taxes. I will reiterate:
''This is miraculous when you think about it. The price of petroleum right now is running over $3.00/gallon. I suppose you'll be paying around $18.00/gallon OUT OF POCKET by November. Of course, we don't get all those lovely benefits you get from your tax structure.''
Now then, do not cry to me or to any other American about your out-of-pocket expense for petrol. Taxation in the UK is a problem for the citizens of the UK to address. It is none of our business. You think you pay less for health care as well. That is another fiction you cannot seem to see through, which I find equally astounding. Again, this is not a problem for Americans to address. It is strictly the business of those who live in and are citizens of the United Kingdom not the United States.
It is always unwise to make your problem my problem. If it becomes my problem I will solve it in a manner that suits me.
RE:'On the other hand, if it encumbers churches and makes them not hate gays, muslims and people different from them and forces them to give everyone equal job opportunity no matter what their faith, sexual orientation, sex/children out of marriage, etc. then I say it is probably a good compromise.'
This is rather ironic. Jerry Doyle, best known for is role as Michael Garibaldi in Babylon Five, that Conservatives should be worried about protecting their churches from the influence of government. I agree with Mister Doyle. Mister Box-of-Rocks Bush clearly failed to think this one through. He has managed to set a very dangerous precedent that he was repeatedly warned about by wiser heads on BOTH sides of the political fence.
I see this as a gross violation of the First Amendment and I sincerely hope someone will drag it before the Supreme Court as quickly as possible. It truly is a very DANGEROUS thing to do. The Framers had very good reason for separating religion from governance and only complete fools ignore their advice.
Most bills presented have so many riders on them, that they have to be voted against for one reason or another!
Washington, DC! Never will you find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy!
Put down your AARP magazine and your mint in box star trek phaser and read this one:
townhall.com/columnists/DennisPrager/2008/07/01/why_i_support_john_mcca in
That SOB owes me a residual.
Holy Shatner, Batman! We got enough waffling going on here to feed Tonny for a month:
elections.foxnews.com/2008/07/01/obama-advisers-differ-over-flexibility -of-troop-withdrawal-plan/
RE:'That SOB owes me a residual.'
Actually, you owe him for doing something you haven't, Bubba. He has tried to make a coherent case for John McCain. I will give him credit. He has done as about as good job as I did when I was thinking about all this stuff.
I assume that you are in 90% or more agreement with Mister Prager. I will therefore sit down and do as thorough a critique of his arguments as I can. That will take a few hours and I will probably will not post an answer to it until sometime tomorrow.
That leaves us with a practical problem. It may or may not make sense to post that argument in this thread. I'll do my best to pick a thread you can spot.
TO NOHARNESS
Well, I have never come across such an uneducated, ignorant pig as you. still, it adds up - over 90 million people in the US are illiterate, you are in good company.
Really, you have`nt the faintest idea about practically anything, let alone TRYING to understand that you pay under half the price for petrol than we do.
Any BENEFITS we get are PAYED FOR OUT OF THE MASSIVE TAXES WE SUFFER.
So, don`t come that crap.
Are there any more like you in America ? I hope not. No wonder you support the Disastrous Dem's and that black man candidate. They deserve you but nobody else does.
PLEASE go and play with your toys and let all of us get on with mature discussion. Make a pen friend of that prat Tonni from Belgium, a kind of Laurel and Hardy of the Internet.
Bye bye, pea brain. Look after that cuddly Teddy Bear of yours, it`s not his fault.
This is nothing new. At election time politicians, like birds anxious to mate, are always preening themselves before religious organizations and constituencies. I think our congress will have brains enough to hold the line of separation between Church and state.
Of course being the smooth-talking politician he is, Obama uses the term 'faith-based groups.' What is that supposed to mean? That statement includes everybody. Humans are by our very nature religious or 'faith-based' beings. Even you claim to be an atheist, atheism is still a system of beliefs that has to be embraced by faith.
And the idea of non-profit, charitable, or religious organizations being subject to government regulation for receiving government funding has been around for decades at least. I remember hearing these same discussions as far back as the 1960s, and it was likely going on long before that.
It's the same old political jargon just being repackaged and doled out again as though it were something new and improved
RE:''Well, I have never come across such an uneducated, ignorant pig as you. still, it adds up - over 90 million people in the US are illiterate, you are in good company...Blah-blah-blah.''
You really are a silly bugger. Guess where your oil companies sell the bulk of their gasoline. I'll give you a hint. It ain't Cornwall. Guess where you get the majority of your pharmaceuticals from. I'll give you a hint. It ain't Edinburgh, Belfast or London. Guess what, Bubbette, we pay more than you do for a long list of things. In other words, we are subsidizing you and a good part of Europe in the bargain.
So, if you want to cry and moan about your exorbitant taxes, you go cry and moan to your MP. It is NOT my problem, nor is it a problem for any other American. It is YOUR problem. Meanwhile we'll figure out a way to deal with some of this hidden foreign aid we have been shelling out.
RE:'Of course being the smooth-talking politician he is, Obama uses the term 'faith-based groups.' What is that supposed to mean? That statement includes everybody. Humans are by our very nature religious or 'faith-based' beings. Even you claim to be an atheist, atheism is still a system of beliefs that has to be embraced by faith.'
Faith? Not a bit of it. Faith is the belief in things unseen and unknowable. I have no truck with such nonsense. The government does not recognize every organization that comes along as a religion and for good reason. George Bush jammed his foot in the door for this madness, now Harry Reid, not Barack Obama is forcing the door the rest of the way open.
This is a very, very dangerous thing to do because it violates the principles upon which our constitution was founded. It WILL lead to a disaster.
Every politician running for office is going to try to appeal to all groups - nothing new about that, it makes good sense.
which one to vote for. Here are two of Americas finest dirty politicians and they are about neck and neck on the scum scale. This is going to be a toughie.
I've never heard of a faith based group giving charity handouts and help to people without either cramming their religion down the person's throat, or flat out telling them that they have to come to their church on sundays. My brother ended up laid off and in trouble, and the local church not only wanted him to do jobs on their property in exchange for food, they told him to had to worship their hypocritical god. Suffice it to say, he found work elsewhere at a retirement center. This is going to backfire on Obama in the end, religion isn't loved in this country like it used to be.
The government attaches all sorts of requirements to welfare, so why is it wrong for a church to do what the government already does?
please protect me from your followers.
This is the second thing scaring me about Obama. The first was when he had to bend over and be seen to by the israeli lobbyists. But now to bend over for the votes of the bible bashers and ann coulter fans or so called christians who would kill everybody on earth in the name of mr.jesus.
How much money for faith based groups has been given to the muslim or hindu
or satanist faiths.
People, it is the twenty-first century we have moved on with science and knowledge there are no magic beings and the belief in such superstitions does not deserve money nor does it justify hatred and murder.
The only politician I would trust is the one who kept his or her beliefs in this mumbo jumbo to themselves or the one brave and intelligent enough to admit that they dont believe in superheroes.
If a European politician mentioned god in a speech they could kiss their career goodbye.
Again it is obvious that the republicans have no problem with paying a lot of money to the oil tycoons,they only object to taxes .the difference between the taxes and the proit of the oil tycoons is that taxes are used to imptove your living conditions ,the money goes to health carenroad works,infrastructure (and for our american friends to the army ).The money that ends up in the bank accounts of the oil tycoons goes nowhere ...Ooh wait a minute,it is partly used to contribute to the election campain of the republican party,notorious for being ingratiated to them .So that explains why they only object to taxes but start lamenting when somebody mentions nationalizing the oil industry .Now it makes sense ...
page: 1
NoharnessJul 1st, 2008 - 21:16:25
Well, here comes the big flip-flop on abortion. This is Harry Reid's work.
Report this comment