Lynda

Guess the following makes me a prophet of some nature <g> since many months
ago I said this was what he would do the minute he got into office if he won
the election.

Lynda
If Ignorance Is Bliss Why Aren't More People Happy?

AMERICANS UNITED CRITICIZES BUSH MEETING WITH BLACK CLERGY TO DISCUSS
TAXPAYER SUPPORT FOR RELIGIOUS MINISTRIES

Effort Has The Trappings Of Political Bribery, Watchdog Group Asserts

Americans United for Separation of Church and State has criticized
President-elect George W. Bush's upcoming meeting with black clergy to
discuss taxpayer funding of "faith-based" social service programs, saying
the meeting looks like an effort to bribe church leaders.

"Bush apparently believes he can buy support in the religious community by
offering to eviscerate the First Amendment through tax funding of religion,"
noted Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United. "This has all
the trappings of political bribery. The president-elect is going to learn
that America's religious community is not for sale."

Bush staffers have announced that the meeting with black clergy will take
place in Austin tomorrow. The move was widely interpreted as an effort by
Bush to shore up support among a constituency that voted heavily against him
on Election Day.

Lynn said Bush's efforts come at the expense of the First Amendment. He
asserted that Bush's much-touted "compassionate conservatism" is merely a
code phrase for forcing taxpayers to support religious ministries that offer
social services. Bush has stated repeatedly that he believes churches should
be able to get tax funding for these programs without watering down the
sectarian nature of their projects.

Bush's gambit, Lynn asserted, is of dubious constitutionality. "Bush is
proposing an unprecedented program of government funding of religion,
involving literally billions in taxpayer dollars," he said. "His plan for
the social services would essentially merge church and state into a single
bureaucracy that would dispense religion alongside government aid."

Lynn noted that Bush plans to establish an "office of faith-based action," a
branch of his administration equivalent to a cabinet-level post, which will
coordinate the effort to distribute tax money to churches and other houses
of worship.

Continued Lynn. "Under this scheme, church soup kitchens would be free to
coerce needy people to pray before helping them. Fundamentalist groups could
refuse to hire Jews, Roman Catholics and atheists and still get a windfall
in taxpayer money. There is simply no way to reconcile taxpayer-supported
religion with the First Amendment. One or the other must give."

Lynn also noted that the Bush proposal is politically unwise. A key
component of Bush's "compassionate conservatism" calls for government-funded
religious school vouchers, yet African American voters in Michigan and
California joined all voters in those states in rejecting vouchers by wide
margins in ballot referenda last month.

Furthermore, exit polls conducted during the election show that Americans of
all races and income levels favor fixing troubled public schools over
vouchers by a margin of nearly 5 to 1.

Concluded Lynn, "It is alarming to me that one of the president-elect's
first official actions is an assault on the First Amendment. This is a
clear sign that the wall of separation between church and state is due to
undergo sustained attack from the White House over the next four years