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Archive for December 6th, 2011

OFBNP 2010 Regurgitations — although it took 176 glossy pages to repeat them.

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I don’t see enough talk about this topic, so I will:

We began this century and millennium with at stealth President, the son of another one, and it seems clear from the behaviors of several of the “faith-based” groups that special privileges were not just expected, but anticipated.  Just a reminder —

Government Transformation By Presidential Decree

Executive Orders Disposition Tables

George W. Bush – 2001

Executive Order 13198
Agency Responsibilities With Respect to Faith-Based and Community Initiatives

  • Signed:   January 29, 2001
  • Federal Register page and date:   66 FR 8497, January 31, 2001
  • See: EO 13559, November 17, 2010

Executive Order 13199
Establishment of White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives

  • Signed:   January 29, 2001
  • Federal Register page and date:   66 FR 8499, January 31, 2001
  • Amended by: EO 13498, February 5, 2009
  • See: EO 13559, November 17, 2010
  • _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
We are also led to believe that Republicans and Democrats are radically different from each other in the most critical areas of policy.
Well, they are in some respects — but not in their casual dismissal of due process, and in the exaltation — by decree, NOT vote — of religion as yet another way to (A) collect money in the name of God, and (B) dominate & control women in the name of God.  I suspect this is to also make it easier to (C) wage war in the name of God when another country interferes with someone’s economic interest who is involved in (A) and probably also (B).  I say this because it takes 9 months to even kick out a baby, and much more to raise one; it often radically changes a woman’s body and relationship with everyone she knows (and larger society).
And without extensive training and propaganda (and with alternatives), no woman in her right mind would be having babies to replenish the supply of human disposables in war.  In other words, for cannon fodder.
Did Obama distinguish himself or distance himself from GWB’s first two aggressions as President?
No — he just tried to reframe it to spin the same theme as his own. In the inauguration speech of 2008, he did not mention women even!
The words are continually “we” “us” “our” (understandable for the occasion).  Back at the drawing board, there is no “we” — because if there is a father-crisis in the land, all equity, due process, and the concept that it’s the MEANS — not the END  which this country was to stand for.  Justice is a process, not the outcome of the process.  Tip the scale, institute a system of bribes and perks – for either litigants or court-connected players (judges, mediators, evaluators ,etc.) — and it is gone.
From 2008 Obama Inauguration Speech: . . .

On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.

On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas that for far too long have strangled our politics.

We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.

In the words of Scripture (the book of Acts/Peter), “I perceive that God is no respecter of persons.” (rank/status)  In the words of Scripture (Gal 5:1), “Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.”
The better history of this country included fleeing bloodshed from religious violence — recent, centuries of it, in England and Ireland, also Scotland and other European places.   One particular type of religious bloodshed — from Oliver Cromwell — had actually resulted in the beginning of the Irish slave trade, as part of dominating Ireland, before I heard even the African slave trade to the Americas.  (search this post).   It also included religion-based property damage (Joseph Priestley’s laboratory destroyed), book bannings and burnings to prevent the spread of knowledge (i.e., heresy) among people, and burnings of people also who translated the “Book” into many different languages.  There is no question that some of these people influenced at least Thomas Jefferson, and they sought toleration, not sectarianism.
They brought some of this with them, there were the Salem witch trials (notice:  women),  and exiles of the unorthodox.   Women helped populate this country — referring to the immigrants, as it was no blank slate! — as well as settle and build it, whether as slaves or as wives, or otherwise (I’m thinking of mining camps, frontier towns).  And yet since the mid 1990s, the nonmarried fertility rate has threatened the powers that be, resulting in backlash grants and nonprofits (which National Fatherhood Initiative is) and backlash Executive Orders seeking the help of the faith-based organizations to:
1.  Help clean up some of the mess the government, and they, have created, and
2.  Get paid — not taxed — to do this, leaving others to pick up the slack.
This document was forwarded to me (it’s from 2010) — and I’m linking to it.  A brief electronic search of its contents shows that these words occur in the following ratios:
  • fatherhood:  “more than 100”
  • motherhood   never — of course.
  • If there is no motherhood in the vocabulary, it must not exist — or not be worth a mention in “faith-based” circles.  Perhaps we should also question whether “fatherhood” truly exists just because it’s talked about more?
  • fathers:   “more than 100” (consider — that’s more than 200 root words, “father”
  • mothers:  17 matches (in 176 pages)
  • mother, singular:  18 meaning only ONCE did the word occur as an individual
  • Occurrences of a hyphenated “father-” word, which indicates recent jargon specific to the field, the grants-based field, as in (from page 37) the heading “Key Data on Father-Absence in America” (bold print, caption)
  • Usages of the very few words “mother” in the text are significant (more, below);
HERE WE GO:
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

President’s Advisory Council

on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships

A New Era of Partnerships:

Report of Recommendations to the President

http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ofbnp-council-final-report.pdf

Publication of this document was coordinated by the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships with support from the Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Special thanks to Joshua DuBois, Executive Director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships and Mara Vanderslice, Deputy Director and Coordinator of the President’s Advisory Council.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Joshua DuBois is well known; who is Ms. Vanderslice?  Well, here’s one profile:

Mara Vanderslice

Mara Vanderslice is the Deputy Director and Senior Policy Advisor to the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.  She is also the Coordinator for the President’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, the first of its kind Advisory group made up of diverse religious and community leaders that provide advice to the President on how to form better partnerships between government and faith-based and neighborhood organizations.  Ms. Vanderslice facilitates the White House’s interagency working group on Religion and Global Affairs, which seeks to promote inter-religious cooperation and engagement in the U.S. Government’s work abroad.

Prior to serving at the White House, Ms. Vanderslice has been engaged at the intersection of faith and politics for many years, working with dozens of candidates and public officials on religious affairs.  She has more than 10 years of experience working with faith-based non-profits on issues from hunger and welfare reform to international development and debt relief for the world’s poorest countries.  Her work on faith and public life has been profiled in TIME magazine, the NY Times and Christianity Today; she has appeared as a guest on CNN, NPR and Comedy Central’s Colbert Report.  Ms. Vanderslice has a bachelor’s degree from Earlham College, a small Christian college in Richmond, IN.

Home

(Quaker:  The School of Religion was accredited in 1969:  The college was founded after Quaker Migration, particularly from NC, and it says has around 1,200 students.  In the late 1990s, it had $40 million of renovations/expansions, etc.  http://www.earlham.edu/about/history

History

The School of Religion, a long-time dream of some Friends, was opened on an experimental basis by Earlham College in the autumn of 1960.  . . .The Earlham School of Religion was accredited in 1969 by the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada (ATS) and by the North Central Association through affiliation with Earlham College.

Interesting to me, because one of the KS secret meetings with marriage-mongers happened at a Friends campus as well.

Indiana moreover, is known for its strong fatherhood movement from Sen. Evan Bayh, among other things (such as being an early center of one of the largest KKK groups around; and today has a strong and prospering fatherhood center taking government support of many sorts, etc.  IN otherwords, that a woman from a small college in Indiana was chosen for this post is quite interesting.

Wow — I just looked at the Speakers’ List on this Global Interfaith Forum where Ms. Vanderslice spoke.

There are 26 speakers — and only 4 women.  Of these, there’s Mara Vanderslice above — the others were hardly like to challenge the status quo here; the pastor’s wife, and two Islamic women, both with heads covered; one young, one older.  The other woman without a head covering identifies as Christian, in fact Southern Baptist –

Not one Catholic, Jewish, or non-tow-the-line Christian woman in there.  And from what I just saw, no African-Americans either.  Here’s Vicky Scott — one of the four:

Vicky Scott is the Vice President of Mainframe Hosting Product Management and Architecture for Fidelity Investments. During her seventeen year career at Fidelity, Ms. Scott has held numerous technology and business leadership roles. Prior to Fidelity, she worked at Electronic Data Systems and Cities Service Oil

Company.  Ms. Scott holds a BS in Mathematics and a BA in Business Administration from Oklahoma Baptist University and an MBA from Southern Methodist University.

Ms. Scott is a key lay leader at Northwood Church in Keller, Texas.  She is the founder and leader of Northwood’s Career Women’s Network.  She is also actively involved in Northwood’s work in Vietnam.

Ms. Scott leads two trips to Vietnam each year, focusing on poverty alleviation and community development. She also partners with the Hanoi Young Business Association and the Hanoi Network of Entrepreneurial Women to promote corporate social responsibility in Vietnam.

This speaker series was hosted at “Northwood Church.”  Therefore, no non-Northword Christian women (no Jewish women, no African-American women, or Asian women )were allowed to speak — nor any Jewish women.  Probably if they had, some of the other speakers might’ve bailed out.

While this is in Texas and based at a church; it falls under free speech for sure, the grandiose title “Global Interfaith” shows us by speaker choice that while something may be indeed Global — it’s hardly representative, especially of the United States!

To be Faith-based IS to be Fatherhood Promoting and Male-Dominant; it is PER SE not representative.  This is clear from the text, the mandate from the President at the beginning of the text to explore “fatherhood” (why not?  It’s a guaranteed money-maker….).

From the text:

CORE CONCEPTs

A single overarching conviction shaped our deliberations: Responsible, engaged fathers are critical to the financial, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual well-being of children, and therefore to the strength and health of American families and communities.  Fathers are not just nice to have around, they are profoundly valuable and often irreplaceable in the lives of their children.

Notice it says “conviction” (belief) — not observation.   For religious that call God “Father” of course fathers are going to be critical to the “spiritual well-being of children” — it’s a circular reasoning!  Also see my article on foster care and adoption incentives.  And the Franklin Cover-up.  What about the children trafficked needlessly into the foster care system, in part because some other sector of society may have removed a good parent, including a mother, or indirectly led to the destruction.

A look at this text (I may just even print the whole thing out for review) shows that where the words “mother” do occur, rarely are (we) doing anything — which is typical in other language-dominance-rhetoric in this field.

Here are the Council Members.  Notice the titles and institutions (or organizations) cited:

Diane Baillargeon, President and CEO, Seedco

SEEDCO is an organization working with faith-based nonprofits and low-income communities.  Here’s press release on her appointment

Anju Bhargava, President, Asian Indian Women in America Founder, Hindu American Seva Charities

Bishop Charles Blake, Presiding Bishop, Church of God in Christ

Noel Castellanos, CEO, Christian Community Development Association, HHS Grantee (ties to the Meier Clinics?) — purpose is evangelism.  It is directly listed on ACF/HHS site

Christian Community Development Associationexit disclaimer
Christian Community Development Association exists to develop a strong fellowship of those involved in Christian community development. We desire to support and encourage existing Christian community developers and their ministries and help to establish new ones.

Dr . Arturo Chávez, President and CEO; Mexican American Catholic College

(The Reverend Canon Peg Chemberlin, President, National Council of Churches; Executive Director, Minnesota Council of Churches

Fred Davie, Senior Director, The Arcus Foundation

(WHO?  “Specifically, the Arcus Foundation works to advnace LGBT equality and protect the great apes“)  (i’m assuming there’s a connection in there somewhere?)  Founder Jon Stryker, in interview:

(Founder of the Arcus Foundation — #375 of Forbes top 400, etc. Divorced, 2 children)

“About the time that I started the Arcus Foundation, in 2000, I was also coming out as a gay man. I quickly realized that there was very little funding for LGBT communities, and that LGBT rights was a niche that was not only personally important to me, but also an area where I could have a big impact as a donor.”   

Wikipedia: Jon Lloyd Stryker (born ca. 1958) is an American architect, philanthropist and activist for social and environmental causes. He is a billionaire stockholder and heir to the Stryker Corporation medical supply company fortunes of grandfather Homer Stryker alongside sisters Pat and Ronda. In 2010, his net worth was estimated at $1.2 billion.[1]

 Nathan J . Diament, Director of Public Policy, Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America

Dr . Joel C . Hunter, Senior Pastor, Northland, A Church Distributed*

See Wikipedia article (essentially a tribute to Hunter, but informative).  Delivered a pre-inaugural blessing to Obama, addressed 2008 DNC campaign, etc.):

Joel Carl Hunter (born April 18, 1948 in Shelby, Ohio), is the senior pastor of Northland, A Church Distributed, a congregation of 15,000 that worships at four sites in Central Florida and at more than 1,000 sites worldwide via interactive webcast, iPhone, and Facebook. He is the author of numerous books, including A New Kind of Conservative (Regal 2008), Church Distributed (Distributed Press 2008) and Inner State 80: Your Journey on the High Way (Higher Life 2009). A leading[citation needed]evangelical voice for compassion issues, Hunter accepted the presidency of the Christian Coalition in 2006, and then resigned before formally acting in that role because the CC board felt that a broadening of agenda to include topics like poverty, justice and other compassion issues would alienate its base.[1] He delivered the closing benediction on the final day of the 2008 Democratic National Convention,[2] prayed with Senator Obama on the day of the 2008 presidential election[2] and offered a blessing for President-elect Obama at the Pre-Inaugural Worship Service at St. John’s Church on January 22, 2009.[3]On February 5, 2009, he was appointed to the President’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, which is purposed to advise Obama on substantive policy issues.[4]

Harry Knox, Director, Religion and Faith Program Human Rights Campaign Foundation

Bishop Vashti Murphy McKenzie, Bishop, Thirteenth Episcopal District, African Methodist Episcopal Church

Dalia Mogahed, Senior Analyst and Executive Director, The Center for Muslim Studies, Gallup

The Reverend Otis Moss, Jr ., Pastor Emeritus, Oliviet Institutional Baptist Church

Dr . Frank Page, Vice-President of Evangelization, North American Mission Board; and Past President of the Southern Baptist Convention

Dr . Eboo Patel, Founder and Executive Director, Interfaith Youth Core

Anthony R . Picarello, Jr ., General Counsel, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

Nancy Ratzan, President, National Council of Jewish Women

Melissa Rogers, Council Chair, Director, Center for Religion and Public Affairs of the Wake Forest University Divinity School

Rabbi David saperstein, Director and Counsel, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism

The Reverend William J . shaw, President, National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc.

The Reverend Larry J . snyder, President and CEO, Catholic Charities USA

Richard E . stearns, President, World Vision United States

Judith Vredenburgh, Immediate Past President and CEO, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America

Jim Wallis, President and CEO, Sojourners

The Reverend Dr . sharon E . Watkins, General Minister and President, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in US and Canada.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

I do not know how many of the above have received already HHS money to promote responsible fatherhood.  Take for example, Seedco.  One would think, being a business, it would operate with contracts — yet it is getting grants:

SEEDCO:

In Feb, 2010, Barbara Gunn became a new CEO, while Baillargeon stayed on as the above (White House Advisory Council) position, and influential in Seedco policy.  Perhaps this helped with obtaining the 2011 grant — no conflict of interest there, certainly . . . .

Barbara Dwyer Gunn has been named President and Chief Executive Officer of the Structured Employment and Economic Development Corporation (Seedco), the New York City-based national nonprofit organization.

Gunn will join Seedco on April 1, 2010, succeeding Diane Baillargeon, who announced last year that she would step down as Seedco’s President and CEO after 12 years at the organization.

Diane Baillargeon has been with Seedco since 1998 and served as chief executive since 2005. She will remain actively involved with Seedco as a senior policy fellow, continuing to play an important role in shaping and developing the organization’s respected policy work. She will also continue to serve in President Obama’s Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

Of course this is not any conflict of interest….

WHAT’S NEW AT SEEDCO

Positive outcomes found for NY Fatherhood Pilot Programs

Participants in New York State’s Strengthening Families through Stronger Fathers Initiative had higher wages, rates of employment, and rates of child support payment than non-participants, the final impact report shows. Seedco operated one of the successful pilots in NYC

From a Report we see this was aimed at noncustodial “parents (mostly fathers)” behind in child support.  In other words, diverting money from TANF for the prior 15 years was not working well enough, more serious interventions had to happen….

“Strengthening Families through Stronger Fathers” report from (The Urban Institute, including Elaine Sorenson, profiled before on blog):

The Intervention

The Strengthening Families Through Stronger Fathers Initiative included a pilot program to test the effectiveness of providing employment and other support services to low-income parents behind in their child support. OTDA contracted with five large, well-established organizations to provide the services. These organizations operated in four cities: Buffalo, Jamestown, Syracuse, and New York City.

Seedco Receives Major Funding for Responsible Fatherhood Initiative

Program to help low-income fathers enter and succeed in the workplace

Oct 20, 2011

Seedco has been awarded a $2.5 million Pathways to Responsible Fatherhood grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services/Administration for Children and Families to help low-income fathers in New York City enter and succeed in the workforce while developing closer relationships with their children.

The barriers preventing fathers from having meaningful relationships with their children are often economic. Participants in the Pathways to Responsible Fatherhood program will have access to job preparation and placement assistance, help with career advancement, and parenting classes and support.

Partners in the project include St. Nicholas Neighborhood Preservation Corporation (St. Nicks), BronxWorks, Northern Manhattan Improvement Corporation (NMIC), and the Upper Manhattan Workforce1 Career Center.

The program will launch in January 2012 and serve approximately 800 fathers each year.

Here it is, and the grant is even named after SEEDCO, who I heard has operations in at least six states.
Recipient Name City State ZIP Code County DUNS Number Sum of Awards
Structured Employment Econ Dev Corp (SEEDCO)  NEW YORK NY 10010 NEW YORK 611634247 $ 2,500,000
FY Award Number Award Title Budget Year of Support Award Code Agency Action Issue Date DUNS Number Amount This Action
2011 90FK0040  SEEDCO’S PATHWAYS TO RESPONSIBLE FATHERHOOD PROGRAM 1 00 ACF 09-26-2011 611634247 $ 2,500,000 
Fiscal Year 2011 Total: $ 2,500,000
For last name of investigator “Suzette”– Contact Seedco, or HHS and find out — see database malfunction, or otherwise dig it out onesself.
Fiscal Year Program Office Grantee Address City Grantee Class Grantee Type Award Number Action Issue Date Award Class Award Activity Type Award Action Type Principal Investigator Sum of Actions
2011 OFA 915 Broadway 17th Floor NEW YORK Non-Profit Private Non-Government Organizations Other Special Interest Organization  90FK0040 09/26/2011 DISCRETIONARY DEMONSTRATION NEW SUZETTE SUZETTE  $ 2,500,000
The fact is, faith-based groups were losing ground and realized they needed to band together, regroup — and put a new spin on the old themes to survive.  Among the workers are many people doing good deeds (as are many non-believers).  But basically the belief set, if it bears the label “Christian” is going to entail some form of this, as found on “DeVos Urban Leadership” site 9which also profiles Noel Castellanos, above.  The DeVos name alone would be cause for concern, DeVos -Bush-Amway-Prince – Blackwater (i.e.,killing Iraqi civillians):  These links keep expiring, so I’ll post what’s up (viewable if you hover cursor) at this site.
In part:
WASHINGTON — Blackwater USA owner Erik Prince downplayed his wealthy Michigan family’s Republican roots as an explanation for the controversial security company’s success, telling a congressional panel Tuesday that he considers the firm nonpartisan despite his family’s strong GOP pedigree.

Prince, a Holland native, said neither he nor anyone in his family approached the White House or the former Republican majority in Congress for help to get a contract for his company’s services in Iraq.

His firm and its employees — hired by the State Department to protect diplomats and others — are under scrutiny for allegations they killed Iraqi citizens with little accountability or review of their actions.

Prince, 38, is the son of the late Edgar Prince, a wealthy industrialist, and the brother of Betsy DeVos, former chairwoman of the Michigan Republican Party and wife of Dick DeVos, whose family cofounded Amway. DeVos lost the governor’s race to Democrat Jennifer Granholm last year.

A report prepared by the Democratic majority on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee before Prince’s testimony noted his sister’s and brother-in-law’s GOP links; the fact that Prince was a White House intern for President George W. Bush’s father, and Prince’s $225,000 in political contributions, mainly to Republican causes

Let’s talk about “Family Values” — THIS Family’s Values:

All in the (Crime) Family: Bush & Blackwater

29th October 2007 | Business News, General News, War / Terrorism News

Like a cancer, private mercenary firm spreads influence in local communities. When the private military company Blackwater USA, a firm tied to the Bush family through marriage and to right-wing extremist and racist groups through politics and money, established its headquarters in Moyock, North Carolina in an former military reservation in the Great Dismal Swamp, just south of the Virginia border, practically no one noticed.

Blackwater was founded in 1997 by Erik Prince, a former US Navy SEAL and right-wing fundamentalist Christian from Michigan. Prince’s father is Edgard Prince, who founded the Family Research Council with Gary Bauer. Erik Prince’s sister is Betty DeVos, who is married to Dick DeVos, the son of Amway co-founder and Mormon bigwig Richard DeVos.

Mormon.  That’s reassuring (hint:  I’m female):

The General Counsel for Erik Prince’s Blackwater parent company, the Prince Group, is Joseph Schmitz, the Pentagon’s former Inspector General. Schmitz’s brother, John Schmitz, Jr. deputy counsel to George H. W. Bush and who is married to the sister of Columba Bush, Jeb Bush’s wife.

The father of John and Joseph was extreme right-wing Republican Congressman John Schmitz, Sr. Their sister is Mary Kay Letourneau, a former Washington State schoolteacher jailed for having sex with a thirteen year old American Samoan student who she later married.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Kay_Letourneau

Safely ensconced in North Carolina and flush with money as a result of Pentagon contracts ensured by Joseph Schmitz and the Bush family, Blackwater began to expand nationally. Using stealth and guile, the company targeted small communities in order to establish regional military training centers.

http://www.oregontruthalliance.org/?q=node/344  (link now defunct/misdirects to an insurance ad)

Do we really want people associated with DeVos enterprises (or even institutes) helping form MORE right-wing partnerships?

DeVos family tied to war profiteer

Ruth Johnson and Dick DeVos / AP Photo
By Bankole Thompson
The Michigan Citizen

DETROIT — In the name of securing Iraq, Blackwater USA has reaped billions of U.S. tax dollars.

The company has Michigan ties.

Billionaire GOP gubernatorial candidate Dick DeVos is connected to the North Carolina based war profiteering security group. Blackwater CEO Erik Prince is the brother of DeVos’ wife, Betsy, the former head of the Michigan Republican Party.

“Blackwater’s success in procuring federal contracts could well be explained by major league contributions and family connections to the GOP,” Jerry Scahill wrote in the Nation magazine Sept. 22, 2005 in an article titled, “Blackwater Down.”

According to election records, Blackwater’s CEO and co-founder, billionaire Erik Prince has given tens of thousands to Republicans, including more than $80,000 to the Republican National Committee the month before Bush’s victory in 2000.

At the start of the Iraq war, Blackwater won a lucrative $21 million contract with the Pentagon to provide security to the Coalition Provisional Authority then headed by Paul Bremer and other high-level U.S. officials.

Media reports indicate since then that the company’s profit in war contracts has grown by 600 percent.

if Bush owed his election part to right-wing conservatives and billionaire’s support of Republicans — not to mention a contested election in FLORIDA in 2000, a state in which the Governor — Bush’s brother, Jeb — whose sister in law (his wife’s sister) is married to a major Pentagon tie from the George H.W. Bush (i.e., the senior Bush) administration.
How many people associate “Faith-based” with DeVos — with Blackwater?  Well, it’s about time to figure that out.
Again, backing up to the “Christians” within the White House Office of (Evangelism through Proselytizing) Office, this is a typical statement of beliefs:

Statement of Faith:

  • We believe the Bible to be the inspired, the only infallible, authoritative, inerrant Word of God.*
  • We believe in one God, eternally existing in three persons–Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
  • We believe in the divinity of Jesus, in his virgin birth, in his sinless life, in his miracles, in his atoning death on the cross, in his bodily resurrection, in his ascension to the right hand of God, and his personal return in power and glory.
  • We believe that all people were created in the image of God, but because of sin, have been alienated from God. Only through faith in Christ alone can that alienation be removed.**
  • We believe that Jesus Christ is the Head of the Church, which is composed of all believers, both the living and the dead.
  • We believe in the present ministry of the Holy Spirit by whose indwelling the Christian is enabled to live a godly life. ##
  • We believe in the resurrection of both the saved and the lost; they that are saved unto the resurrection of life and they that are lost unto the resurrection of condemnation.
(* WHICH Bible?  Ever read an NIV?
**Perhaps this is how another group go the concept of “PARENTAL (Father) ALIENATION” or borrowed it for their own purposes?)
Sentence one contradicts Sentence 2 — this Triune belief was not proved conclusively by scripture and hence had to be enforced by force.  It’s more than just “part of the landscape” but part of history — and turning points in it.  One book on this that explained the Shutdown of Dialogue (within the faith and within the heartily debating pagans at the time) is  short, good read:
“AD 381   The Dawn of the Monotheistic State.”  (Or, see Wikipedia’s clumsy attempt to characterize)

The First Council of Constantinople is recognized as the Second Ecumenical Council by the Assyrian Church of the East, the Oriental Orthodox, the Eastern Orthodox, the Roman Catholics, the Old Catholics, and a number of other Western Christian groups. It was the first Ecumenical Council held in Constantinople and was called by Theodosius I in 381.[1][2] The council confirmed the Nicene Creed and dealt with other matters such as the Arian controversy as it met in the church of Hagia Irene from May to July 381.

Pope Damasus I either was not invited or declined to attend, so this council is sometimes called the “unecumenical” council. However, it was affirmed as ecumenical at the Council of Chalcedon in 451. …

Geopolitical context

Theodosius’ strong commitment to Nicene Christianity involved a calculated risk because Constantinople, the imperial capital of the Eastern Empire, was solidly Arian. To complicate matters, the two leading factions of Nicene Christianity in the East, the Alexandrians and the supporters of Meletius in Antioch, were “bitterly divided … almost to the point of complete animosity.”[5]

 A review of the book (there are other similar books; this one is short enough!) explains the importance of this turning point.  To those who don’t believe in God, it may seem (pun unintended), “Immaterial”  -but historically it was very MUCh about material matters — status, position and control of wealth & influence.

A.D. 381 by Charles Freeman

A.D. 381 provides compelling look at change in reason
STEVEN E. ALFORD
Published 05:30 a.m., Sunday, April 19, 2009

In two books, The Closing of the Western Mindand A.D. 381: Heretics, Pagans, and the Dawn of the Monotheistic State, Charles Freeman has sought to trace the process through which the West abandoned the Greek ideal of free, rational inquiry, replacing it with the assumption that orthodox Christianity was the only avenue for discovering truths about the world.

With this transition, credulity replaced reason and blind adherence to orthodoxy replaced open speculation about the nature of spiritual and earthly life. The Closing of the Western Mind focused on the broad thesis that the Greek rationalist tradition had been destroyed by the politicization of theChristian church by the state, while A.D. 381 focuses “more closely on the important transitions that took place in the relationship between Church and state in the last thirty years of the fourth century.”

A.D. 381 ranges from an introductory chapter outlining Platonic and Aristotelian approaches to the world, to a chapter demonstrating how Augustine codified a religious doctrine for the Catholic church that strongly emphasized human unworthiness of God’s grace—a position at odds with those of any number of previous Christian theologians—and ends with an analysis of how Aquinas revivified the relation between Church doctrine and the free exercise of reason . . .

“There can have been few more important moments in the history of European thought.

Let me continue to emphasize — the tradition this thought comes from is that of a shutdown of free debate over 1500 years old!  As then, so now — there are schism after schisms within church.  However, now that power has begun to wane (?) — somehow, around the time of Bush election (see DeVOS connections!) — it is conceived that now faith-based groups (a meaningless word of itself) are playing the victim; they have been discriminated against throughout almost a century (?) and now deserve special status, including the right to dismantle built-in Constitutional safeguards against a theocracy — in the name of “working together.”
Here is another excerpt:

Freeman’s important point is that the establishment of orthodox belief was engineered not by the Church, but by the state, and that enforcing belief with secular power was the beginning of the end of free inquiry in the empire. Ten years later, “Theodosius issued the first of the series of laws against paganism” and once the state “had decided to intervene in support of orthodoxy and in opposition to heresy, the outcome was an authoritarianism based on irrational principles, which presided over the demise of ancient traditions of reasoned debate.”

We are more than there already, and the benign tolerance by (all of us) to “faith-based initiatives” — failling to recognize they are at odds with the best principles behind this country, and they are essentially yet another way of promoting fatherhood programs in an economy which is cutting basic services .

People that are willing to partake in this have taken leave of their sense of reason and justice — for the sake of access to patronage.  None of the people in the above council, having been charged with the President to find more ways to talk about Fatherhood, appears to have rocked that boat at all.  Yet look at the discrepancy in language in this 176-pager, above, in year 2010!

Freeman then outlines Augustine’s complicity in this suppression, noting that his “lasting contribution to political thought lies in 

his justification of authoritarian regimes that see virtue in order per se, rather than any abstract ideals such as justice or the defense of human rights, or even in the teachings of Jesus themselves.”

##Another statement (from DeVosUrbanLeadership, linking to a person on the White House Council):
_ _ We believe in the present ministry of the Holy Spirit by whose indwelling the Christian is enabled to live a godly life. ##
One doesn’t need to read too far in the book of Acts (traditionally often thought of as the beginning of the Christianity with the Day of Pentecost.  Surely Joshua DuBois would believe something similar as a Pentecostal?) — to realize that Jesus (ascending into heaven, in the account) characterized the holy spirit as something enabling a witness, and being “endued with power from on high.”
Acts 1:
 4And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. 5For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.
and in the same chapter:

But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
It doesn’t say that their witness is their ethics — the next chapters clearly talk about demonstrations in the area of supernatural (which is not the province of HHS grants or “capacity building!”).  The next few chapters detail some of this and the crowd’s responses to seeing or hearing something unique, strange, and otherwise a sign of God, from supernatural to natural.  Elsewhere in the Bible it is referred to a token of an inheritance to come, namely eternal life.
What difference does it make if faith-based groups don’t agree on this and don’t concur?
A lot — because
(#1) it means one is dealing with people who cannot be rational, or honest, about their own scriptures — how rational are they going to be about their own Constitution, of human origin?
(#2) it means dealing with people whose practice of religion was not established by BURDEN OF PROOF (reason), or in FREE DEBATE — but under state coercion for at least 1500 years — and that’s only dealing with Christianity.
(#3) it means dealing with people whose faith includes seeking status and special privileges within the state — which faith-based organizational ALREADY have because they are tax-exempt, and sometimes incredibly wealthy.
(#4) it means in groups who may talk tolerance, but in critical issues, they are not.
(#5) among some of the groups, women could not hold priesthood, priests could not marry, sex was considered evil and dirty, and mature women, including mothers, were characterized and/or mocked as “Crones,” yet how many priests, forbidden to marry, and commanded to celibacy, ended up engaging in sex instead with each other — or with the youngsters in their charge.
TO THIS DAY! (See Project Pierre-Toussaint, recent post, re:  Haiti school for boys)….
(#6) Rather than openly confessing and repenting when this is found in their midst — as scriptures, and the heart of the faith, entails — the communities then cover up, failing to here even complaints from their own, switch jurisdictions of priests, and continue taking money from their parishioners, who then help raise extra funds to pay for lawsuit settlements, or otherwise help buffer some of the costs.
(#7) Despite terrific works of art, public monuments, beautiful music and literature, and more — and in the 1500s/1600s, the spread of literacy throughout England which came with the commissioning of the Bible and installing one in every church (after which the next monarch had them removed) — this also helped spread the means to challenge the authority of the Catholic Church — the ability to challenge authority on which any liberty has to rest — when it comes to the matters of JUSTICE — there has to be some reasoned debate, and debate about the principle causes — not theological vagaries.

If reason just left the room, then so did hope of justice with it.    There should NO quarter be given to mixing the already existing “fatherhood initiatives” with more “faith-based initiatives” in the name of anything — whatsoever!

I have seen more than I can report here, but again call to witness how many Governor’s Offices (U.S. States) are beginning to install the Office of Faith-Based somewhere in the Executive Branch — some after they already have a Fatherhood Commission.  Oklahoma’s story pretty much sets the pattern, but one can read in Ohio, Florida, and now Kansas — similar things happening.  Travesties in the financial, openness, and use of public funds categories, with coverups, and out of state rescuers from the Bush-HHS-Faith-based field to welcome with warm arms someone who fled the last geography before they got tarred and feathered, and properly so!
FYI — I lost an entire post yesterday (my fault for not assembling it out of reach of hacking or viruses on the input computer) — but the same pattern continues — failure to stay incorporated, or to file taxes properly with the state, audits of misbehaviors for the institutes in question — and they keep getting funded anyhow.
We do not need to go 50 more miles down this primrose path, specially given who is paying for the flowers being strewn along it for those on the take.
LOOK ‘EM UP — SCANDAL AND PROTESTS FOLLOW:
OHIO — Governor’s Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives:  Sisterhen, WeCare Scandal, I blogged it too.
KANSAS — Siedlicki closed-door meetings outed, now they are having town halls with the Heritage Foundation, considering how to eliminate no-fault divorce, telling women to marry their way out of poverty (some women were driven their by marriage!) and more.   I blogged this and there’s more.
OKLAHOMA — Key figure was Bush appointee, after OK, he went to FL and then back to HHS, from what I can tell:
This was great news for the woman running the SmartMarriages conference and FOR-profit “LLC” for marriage educators:  the good news was broadcast on a listsever by  “Diane” (Diane Sollee, presumably) in 2000:
from: Smart Marriages

This is almost too good to be true.  But it's true!! More info to follow
and a piece will appear in USA Today on Thursday.   -diane  

Governor Frank Keating Challenges Nation to Tackle Divorce Rate Oklahoma Commits $10 Million to Address the Problem

For Immediate Release:
March 21, 2000					

	Washington DC ­ Governor Frank Keating is increasing Oklahoma¹s stakes
in the battle to reduce its divorce rate by making a significant
financial commitment to address the problem.  Jerry Regier,** Oklahoma Cabinet Secretary for Health and Human Services, was in Washington DC
today to announce that Governor Keating is now the first governor in the
country to set aside $10 million dollars in TANF (Temporary Assistance
For Needy Families) funds to be used to strengthen marriages and reduce
the divorce rate.
Perhaps the headline should, more accurately “OKLAHOMA’s GOVERNOR (not the whole state) DIVERTS $10 MILLION FROM NEEDY FAMILIES TO MARRIAGE PROMOTION” or more simply, “Oklahoma STEALS $10 million to push Marriage instead of Provide Food for Families.”
FLORIDA (article from democratic underground rejoices that Regier finally resigned and quoted some of the views he supports, and in front of whom):
Beliefs or no beliefs (though they contain objectionable declarations), the resignation was over matters of dishonesty surrounding contracts (I blogged earlier)
Fla. Child-Protection Agency Chief (Jerry Regier) Quits (WOO HOO!!!) (posted August 3, 2004) in Discussion board by “Khephra”
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The chief of Florida’s troubled child-protection agency resigned Monday after becoming mired in controversy in recent months over the department’s dealings with contractors. 

Jerry Regier, secretary of the Department of Children & Families, offered his resignation during a meeting with Gov. Jeb Bush.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns…

Excerpts of Regier’s views in family-life essay

When Jerry Regier was president of the Family Research Council in the late 1980s, he and Dr. George Rekers coauthored an essay entitled The Christian World View of the Family.

The essay was published by the Coalition on Revival, a coalition of evangelical leaders, as one of 17 ”World View Documents” detailing what it called “comprehensive biblical principles of how to apply the truth of the Bible to all spheres of life and ministry.”

snip………..

“We deny that the Bible countenances any other definition of the family, such as the sharing of a household by homosexual partners, and that society’s laws should be modified in any way to broaden the definition of family or marriage beyond the Biblically understood definition of heterosexual marriage, blood relations and adoption.”

• • •

‘We deny that premarital and extramarital sexual relationships, promiscuity, adultery, homosexuality, bestiality, exhibitionism, pornography, adult-child sexual relations, prostitution, sex-act entertainment, masturbation and other sexual deviations should be sanctioned or accepted as `normal’ or legal, even if done alone or by consenting partners . . .”

{{HYPOCRITES!   So how come it’s often leading evangelical (males, if I may add) getting caught cheating on their wives, with their pants down, including with adolescent young men?}}
• • •

“We affirm that a man’s authority as head of his wife is delegated to him by God; that this means that his legitimate authority over his wife is limited by what God’s Word allows him; and that all authority is established by God and no one and no social institution has the right to exert any authority contrary to God’s laws or the bounds God has set for the man’s office in the family. . .”

More Jerry Regier in Florida as head of DCF — and how he got there less than 2 days after the former head resigned (as recommended by Catholic-educated Gov. Keating in a Jeb Bush administration), in which a Broward County judge (it says) resigned over scandal of a 5-year old who disappeared while in foster care, along with others.  Read this 2002 article.
When one endorses and votes for, accepts (including by silence) ongoing Offices of Faith-Based & Community Partnerships nationwide, THIS is typical of what one is endorsing, voting for, and accepting by silence.  Count me Out of the silence part!
Florida Department of Children and Families new head: It’s OK to leave bruises or welts 
By CAROL MARBIN MILLER, LESLEY CLARK AND PETER WALLSTEN
Miami Herald, August 16, 2002

TALLAHASSEE – The man named Thursday by Gov. Jeb Bush to head Florida’s notoriously inept child welfare agency is an evangelical Christian who views spanking that causes ”bruises or welts” as acceptable punishment.The revelation did not come to Bush’s attention until hours after the governor introduced Jerry Regier, a former Oklahoma Cabinet secretary and aide to Bush’s father, as the new chief of the state’s Department of Children and Families.

Regier, 57, was named less than 48 hours after the resignation of DCF Secretary Kathleen A. Kearney. He takes over an agency that has been embroiled in scandal since 5-year-old Rilya Wilson disappeared.

In a 1989 essay entitled The Christian World View of the Family, Regier and co-author George Rekers railed against abortion and gay couples forming families, and emphasized that husbands have “final say in any family dispute.”

And the essay declares that ”biblical spanking” that leads to “temporary and superficial bruises or welts do not constitute child abuse.”

The essay also said Christians should not marry non-Christians, that divorce is acceptable only when there is adultery or desertion(*1*) and that wives should view working outside the home as ”bondage.” (*2*)  The ”radical feminist movement,” the essay adds, “has damaged the morale of many women and convinced men to relinquish their biblical authority in the home.”

(*1*)  “Moses allowed . . . . . For the hardness of your hearts,” says Jesus.   It does site adultery as cause for divorce — which was discouraged by the practice of stoning adulterers, under the law!  Obviously, to do this, would deplete America of many Congressional leaders (and pastors) hence it’s an unenforceable declaration.  However, that’s what the group wishes for.
(*2*)  That’s pretty ridiculous — see Proverbs 31, held up as a model:

13She seeketh wool, and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands.

14She is like the merchants’ ships; she bringeth her food from afar.

15She riseth also while it is yet night, and giveth meat to her household, and a portion to her maidens.

16She considereth a field, and buyeth it: with the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard.

17She girdeth her loins with strength, and strengtheneth her arms.

18She perceiveth that her merchandise is good: her candle goeth not out by night.

19She layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff.

20She stretcheth out her hand to the poor; yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy.

21She is not afraid of the snow for her household: for all her household are clothed with scarlet.

22She maketh herself coverings of tapestry; her clothing is silk and purple.

While this is someone IN a household (and not sleeping much — few things change!) it’s clear she is buying and selling, and running her own household, including managing servants.   However, in the same proverbs, it says kings shouldn’t be given to strong drink (or whoring) either.  So let’s apply both equally!
From 2002 article on this man Regier:

Regier ”could be of immense help to you.” Keating noted he called in Regier during a ”similar crisis” in Oklahoma, asking him to root out phantom employees on the health department payroll.

Regier, who will be paid $150,000 a year, will take over a staff of more than 25,000 employees statewide who oversee more than 45,000 children, most of whom have been abused or neglected by their parents. He said his first task will be to meet with agency employees.

He will work with a budget of $844 million, a significant reduction from the $1.2 billion at his disposal in Oklahoma.

Regier steps into the shoes of former Broward judge Kearney, who resigned Tuesday after more than three months of turmoil, beginning with the April announcement that 5-year-old Rilya had disappeared from Florida’s foster care system.

In subsequent days, the agency faced down serious allegations that several children — from Miramar, Lakeland, Fort Myers, Riviera Beach and Crestview — already known to be at risk, died from abuse or neglect.

Regier described by Oklahoman Democrat with 54 years of service:  “Good at fighting problems that don’t exist.”
http://www.nospank.net/n-j39.htm (title, above, I am quoting sections to comment on):

”The best way I’ve heard him described is that he considers himself a self-made man — and he worships his maker,” said Democratic Sen. Gene Stipe, dean of the Oklahoma Senate with 54 years of service. “He’ll be extremely partisan, you can expect that. He will really champion all the right-wing causes.”

Though Regier boasted he had saved taxpayers more than $1 million by rooting out patronage and corruption in Oklahoma’s health department, Stipe said Regier ”busted” his budget at the state’s Office of Juvenile Affairs, a position he held before taking over at the department of health.

Leist, a Democratic state House member, said Regier’s $10-million effort to curb divorce — which used unspent welfare dollars primarily intended for poor people — did little to improve the welfare of troubled families.

”It stunk,” Leist said of Regier’s Marriage Initiative, which was warmly embraced by Keating, and much of conservative Washington. Contrary to Regier and Keating’s proclamations, Leist said, Oklahoma’s divorce rate was lower than surrounding states.

”He’s good at fighting problems that don’t exist,” Stipe said.

By CAROL MARBIN MILLER, LESLEY CLARK AND PETER WALLSTEN
Miami Herald, August 16, 2002  ((…Miami Herald staff writers Steve Rothaus, Jay Weaver, Oscar Corral and Tyler Bridges contributed to this report.)) 

Mr. Regier, “Bless him…” (sarcasm intentional) in 2009 moved from HHS to Chief Operating Officer/Senior Consultant at “Calvin Edwards & Company,”
I have just demonstrated to you WHERE, in part, men get the idea that it’s OK to batter women into submission in this time — NOW — and any feminist or Congress that takes this right away from them is going against Nature, nay, against God.
Have you heard enough?  OK now, I suspect middle school and elementary classroom education had better improve drastically — right now — or else, if this crowd gets its ways, all young men in public schools will have to hear their lessons standing up with both hands on the desk, to be taught that human bodily functions are unnatural and they should feel guilty about having any, and by now probably the young women too.   Or perhaps, someone should design burqa for evangelical women?
If this argument is getting a little ridiculous — it started out this way.  It’s not argument, it’s “conviction,” rhetoric, and paid-for propaganda.
“Over 100”  to “Only 18” — the Faith-based is a Fatherhood Group.  Too many of the Fatherhood-promoting Grants recipients don’t handle their corporations (and presumably their money, either) honestly.   
Very few people are consistently honest, especially in high places, it would seem.  This is why iot’s important that those at the top of Government AND State (which are already far too inbred) not be rewarded — or even complimented — for figuring out how to “Collaborate” — with each others, out of the earshot of the people most affected by their decisions — women, and children, and by that I do NOT only mean women of some prominence in repressive religions.

Report of Recommendations to the President

http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ofbnp-council-final-report.pdf

Check it out.

Written by Let's Get Honest|She Looks It Up

December 6, 2011 at 2:59 pm

Posted in History of Family Court

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