“Faith-based” Stooges for the State

I have previously posted on the corrupting influence of the State on the church, and we now have an incredibly overt case-study example in the Obama administration’s recent use of the Office of Faith-Based Initiatives to enlist pastors as propagandists for Obamacare.

In a conference call to religious leaders, Obama exhorted them to:

Get out there and spread the word. ...The debate in Washington is over, the Affordable Care Act is now law ... I think all of you can be really important validators and trusted resources for friends and neighbors, to help explain what’s now available to them.

During the same call,

Joshua DuBois, director of the White House Office of Faith-based and Community Partnerships, gave activists a rallying cry: “Get the word out there, get information out there. Make use of the resources we’ve described on this call: the website, door hangers, one pagers and so forth. We’ve got work to do.”

The call was organized through the Dept. of Health and Human Services Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, which additionally helpfully offers Grants-Writing Training and Technical Assistance Trainings for “Grassroots” Faith and Community Based Groups.

With the Dept. of Health and Human Services having its very own office for faith-based partnerships, imagine the uses to which other government agencies could use such outreach opportunities:

• The IRS could use an Office of Faith-Based partnerships to spread the word to church-goers that taxes are charity—as secular liberals apparently already believe, with their low levels of charitable giving corresponding to their church attendance.
• The Defense Dept. could use its own Office of Faith-Based partnerships to provide pastors with door hangers explaining that war is peace, and helpfully detailing who Jesus would approve bombing.

Indeed, the possibilities are virtually endless.

Separation of Church and State anyone?