Anti-Faith Activist Losing Faith in Obama

Barry Lynn, the perpetually aggrieved anti-faith crusader for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, is disappointed in The One:

Why does President Barack Obama support a policy that lets a Baptist homeless shelter take tax dollars and then refuse to hire Jews, Hindus or nonbelievers to change the sheets or ladle out the morning oatmeal? Particularly when it violates a clear campaign promise.

In 2008, candidate Obama told an audience in Zanesville, Ohio, that he would make major changes in the way religious entities were funded. Under President George W. Bush's "faith-based" program, government grants and contracts went to religious groups to provide social services, even when those groups insisted on discriminatory hiring practices -- applicants could be denied federally funded jobs, based solely on religious affiliation or beliefs.

During his presidential campaign, Obama specifically promised that "if you get a federal grant, you can't use that grant money to proselytize to the people you help and you can't discriminate against them -- or against the people you hire -- on the basis of their religion."

This sounded pretty unequivocal. But more than a year has gone by since Obama set up his Office of Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, and no substantive policy has been changed, least of all discriminatory hiring.

Wake up and smell the coffee, Barry. Obama's promises are good at that moment and for that specific audience only. He never had any intention of requiring religious institutions to hire people with beliefs they oppose. That was designed to get the votes of people like you, Barry. And he got it.