Is the New Year going to be Happy?  

Will We be Faithful to the Underlying Idea (vs. Current Practices) of the USA)?

Because the last President that talked about the separation of church and state with clarity got assassinated.  And the ones recently in office are quite fine with tolerating and expanding their union, starting with legislation by Executive Order, economic control through cronyism, and in cases I have recently witnessed, all but directly paying pastors to set up front corporations and spread certain products — from favored groups — and to a double-standard; failing to file taxes doesn’t even preclude organizations from getting more grants; in fact, it seems to be the preferred method.

I

LISTEN, to JFK @ the Greater Houston Ministerial Association (9/12/1960)

From “American Rhetoric.com” (and an mp3 on the site, too)

Reverend Meza, Reverend Reck, I’m grateful for your generous invitation to state my views.

While the so-called religious issue is necessarily and properly the chief topic here tonight, I want to emphasize from the outset that I believe that we have far more critical issues in the 1960 campaign; the spread of Communist influence, until it now festers only 90 miles from the coast of Florida — the humiliating treatment of our President and Vice President by those who no longer respect our power — the hungry children I saw in West Virginia, the old people who cannot pay their doctors bills, the families forced to give up their farms — an America with too many slums, with too few schools, and too late to the moon and outer space. These are the real issues which should decide this campaign. And they are not religious issues — for war and hunger and ignorance and despair know no religious barrier.

But because I am a Catholic, and no Catholic has ever been elected President, the real issues in this campaign have been obscured — perhaps deliberately, in some quarters less responsible than this. So it is apparently necessary for me to state once again — not what kind of church I believe in, for that should be important only to me — but what kind of America I believe in.

I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute; where no Catholic prelate would tell the President — should he be Catholic — how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote; where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference, and where no man is denied public office merely because his religion differs from the President who might appoint him, or the people who might elect him.

I believe in an America that is officially neither Catholic, Protestant nor Jewish; where no public official either requests or accept instructions on public policy from the Pope, the National Council of Churches** or any other ecclesiastical source; where no religious body seeks to impose its will directly or indirectly upon the general populace or the public acts of its officials, and where religious liberty is so indivisible that an act against one church is treated as an act against all.

For while this year it may be a Catholic against whom the finger of suspicion is pointed, in other years it has been — and may someday be again — a Jew, or a Quaker, or a Unitarian, or a Baptist. It was Virginia’s harassment of Baptist preachers, for example, that led to Jefferson’s statute of religious freedom. Today, I may be the victim, but tomorrow it may be you — until the whole fabric of our harmonious society is ripped apart at a time of great national peri

**below, I have a White-House-based list of state faith-based offices.  Note the Connecticut contact:  “Connecticut Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships & Conference of Churches”  I have also seen grants to the National Council of Churches, it seems to me, from HHS.  There is no longer even a pretense of keeping the religion out of either politics, or actual government.

Copying Bush (2001), Some US Governors Establish Offices of Faith-Based Organizations.  Others Stick it in their SRS on taking Office

OK, OK — My blogging tradition of ridiculous titles continues, but that can’t beat how inane is the term ‘Faith-Based Organization.”

Anyone who knows a little history knows that religious groups (and governments) (and sometimes both together) are absolutely GREAT at producing lots and lots of martyrs, sacrificing a few for the good of all (the public is told) — even if it’s rather the other way around, sacrificing multitudes for the good of a few.   The word “faith” occurs in this short (40 verses) chapter 25 times:  It is hailed as the chapter on Faith in the New Testament.  All things will disappear, says I Corinthians 13 (the chapter on “Love”) — but three things remain:  Faith, Hope and Charity — but the Greatest of these is Charity. And the greatest Evil is the love of money (elsewhere).

Fast forward through many bloody centuries — like about 15, 16, 17 of them — and in the colonies on the eastern seaboard of what we now call the United States of America, some colonists get tired of being colonized (while still doing this to their own slaves and continuing to assert that women are also property) — and remembering very recent history, concoct this new thing, that there should be freedom of worship.  Some of the people who came up with this idea, challenging the combo of throne & religion, had lost a lot recently, and witnessed too much because of it.  Here it comes!

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

and (this is simply Wikipedia, simply a reminder):

Opposition to the ratification of the Constitution was partly based on the Constitution’s lack of adequate guarantees for civil liberties. To provide such guarantees, the First Amendment (along with the rest of the Bill of Rights) was submitted to the states for ratification on September 25, 1789, and adopted on December 15, 1791.

Passed in 1786, here’s Jefferson’s Statute of Religious Freedom in Virginia:

Next to the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson took greatest pride in his authorship of the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom, which, as his friend James Madison said, “extinguished forever the ambitious hope of making laws for the human mind.   Jefferson wrote this statute in 1777, when he had returned from the Continental Congress to begin a wholesale revision of Virginia’s laws that would eradicate every trace of aristocratic privilege hidden in them. At the time, “the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience” was an established right in Virginia. Yet Jefferson’s statute was bitterly opposed and led to what he later called “the severest contest in which I have ever been engaged.”     

The statute finally passed in 1786, thanks to the political skills of James Madison and only after the assembly had deleted significant portions of Jefferson’s original law. Partly as a result of this victory, however, Jefferson gained a reputation as an enemy of religion. Thirty years later he wrote that “the priests indeed have…thought it proper to ascribe to me…anti-religious sentiments…They wished him to be thought atheist deist, or devil, who could advocate freedom from their religious dictations.”

Here it is, with the “strikeout” representing portions which were deleted by others in order to get it passed:

(Well aware that the opinions and belief of men depend not on their own will, but follow involuntarily the evidence proposed to their minds; that) Almighty God hath created the mind free, (and manifested his supreme will that free it shall remain by making it altogether insusceptible of restraint😉 that all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments…tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness, and are a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, who being lord both of body and mind, yet chose not to propagate it by coercions on either, as was in his Almighty power to do, (but to extend it by its influence on reason alone;) that the impious presumption of legislators…[who] have assumed dominion over the faith of others…hath established and maintained false religions over the greatest part of the world;…(that the opinions of men are not the object of civil government, nor under its jurisdiction;)…and finally, that truth is great and will prevail if left to herself; that she is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error, and has nothing to fear from the conflict unless by human interposition disarmed of her natural weapons, free argument and debate; errors ceasing to be dangerous when it is permitted freely to contradict them

Well, there are quite a few ways to get something done without Congress passing a law.  One of these in recent times has been simply a President issuing an Executive Order.  It’s not a law — just an order.  We know Bush Did (and I’m squawking about it all the time, here, right?).  And it’s kind of follow the leader — if a President can do a “Faith-Based” (whatever that is) so can I! say the Governors.  And here they come (not necessarily in order):

You don’t know what you had til it’s gone…

Here  — from whitehouse.gov — is their list of the state-level faith-based pooh-bahs (look it up) so far.  Pennsylvania is working on one:  Below that, I’m going to talk about three of them:  Indiana, Kansas, and Ohio:

State Offices for Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships

Alabama
Jon Mason
Director, Governor’s Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives
Phone: (334) 954-7440
Email: info@servealabama.gov

Arizona  
Leah Koestner
Assistant, Office of Governor Janice K. Brewer
Phone: (602) 542-
Email:  azgov@az.gov

Arkansas
Jim Abson
Faith-based Liaison, DHS Division of Volunteerism
Phone: (501) 682-7540
Email: james.abson@arkansas.gov

Connecticut
Rev. Shelley D. Best
Director, Faithworks CT: Connecticut Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships & Conference of Churches
Phone: (860) 247-0017
Email:  sbest@conferenceofchurches.org

CT site shows its a project receiving ARRA funding, which itself has received government audit-level reports as being VERY poorly monitored, i.e., the recipients sampled owed as much or more income taxes themselves than the grants received.

This website is a virtual campus for thought leaders in nonprofit organizations across Connecticut. Whether you’re a seasoned leader or new to the nonprofit world, here’s where you’ll find the tools, courses, and information you need to transform your communities. FaithWorks—the Connecticut Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships—is a longtime initiative of the Conference of Churches. We’re expanding our scope through funding from the American Recovery and Investment Act. Partnership is the catalyst to help neighborhood and faith-based nonprofit organizations to re-envision and transform our urban centers in Connecticut to strong, economically vibrant communities.

They consider themselves “thought leaders” when in fact they are simply following the leader:  BUSH. See “The Family.”

FaithWorks Fellows
The centerpiece of this initiative is the 5-day FaithWorks Community Development Leadership Institute, an intensive series which equips faith-based and neighborhood nonprofits to do bigger things! FaithWorks Fellows—graduates of the Institute— are some of Connecticut’s most articulate and successful thought leaders. They have achieved measurable improvements including 50% increases to their organizational revenues and improved community collaboration. Some Fellows have gone as far as calling the Institute a “life-changing” experience. The relationships they form through the Institute are lasting. Well beyond the 5 days FaithWorks Fellows continue to share ideas and collaborate with one another.

“The context of community is what makes it so valuable.”
—Laura Coffin, Executive Director, Acts 4 Ministry Inc. Waterbury

“Conference of Churches” tax-exempt and getting government grants to do public services (salary of CEO is $78K).  Here are the tax returns per 990-finder:

Searching TAGGS by this EIN#, the charity got $250,000 (only grant showing) in 2009:

The principal investigator here, Shelly Copeland’s bio should be read for its connections:

Rev.Best holds an M.A in Religious leadership from Hartford
Seminary, a M.Div. from Yale University Divinity School and
is a Doctoral Candidate from Hartford Seminary. [For her brief
biography, click here.] As an innovative community development consultant and
practitioner, Rev. Best serves as Founding Director of Faith-
BasedCoach.org and President and CEO of The Conference of
Churches as well as director of the Connecticut and Hartford 
Offices of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. She
earned a national reputation through her launch of
FaithWorks Community Development Leadership Institute,
which expanded the capacity of 40 nonprofit organizations
across the US.

Rev. Best has published works on cultural competence, hosts
radio and TV shows, and acted as spokesperson for
Connecticut’s Department of Children and Families

It is registered, and has no address or principals on-line at the state commercial registry site:

So the head of the office also runs services supported by foundations which (it says) often are supported by nonprofits and foundations, and she has a prior spokesperson connection with government in related CT Government Department.

Florida
Kay Kammel
President, Volunteer Florida Foundation
Phone: (850) 410-0696
Email:  kay.kammel@vfffund.org

Hawaii
Sonya Seng
Program Specialist
Phone: (808) 586-8675
Email:  Sonya.M.Seng@hawaii.gov

Indiana
James Huston
Executive Director, Governor’s Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives
Phone: (317) 233-3295
Email: info@ofbci.in.gov

Iowa
Larned A. Waterman
Iowa Nonprofit Resource Center
Phone: (319) 335-9765
Email:  law-nonprofit@uiowa.edu

Kansas
Erica Haas
Attorney, Governor’s Grants Program
Phone: (785) 291-3205
Email:  Erica.Haas@ks.gov

Kentucky
Colmon Elridge
Executive Assistant to the Governor, Office of the Governor
Phone: (502) 564-2611
Email:  Colmon.Elridge@ky.gov

Maryland
Mark Byrd
Interfaith Coordinator, Governor’s Office of Community Initiatives (GOCI)
Phone: (410) 767-1822
Email: alagdameo@goci.state.md.us

Michigan
Greg Roberts
Special Advisor and Director, Governor’s Office of Community and Faith-based Initiatives
Phone: (313) 456-0015
Email:  RobertsG@michigan.gov

Mississippi
Rebekah Staples
Faith-based and Community Liaison, Office of Governor Barbour
Phone: (601) 359-3150
Email:  rstaples@governor.state.ms.us

Missouri
Dante Gliniecki
Statewide Volunteer Coordinator, Department of Public Safety
Phone: (573) 526-9132
Email: dante.gliniecki@sema.dps.mo.gov

New Jersey
Edward LaPorte
Director, NJ Office of Faith-based Initiatives
Phone: (609) 984-6952
Email:  faith@sos.state.nj.us

New Mexico
Hazel Mella
Director of NM OFBCI, Governor’s Office on Faith-based and Community Initiatives
Phone: (505) 841-4582
Email:  hazel.mella@state.nm.us

North Dakota
Beth Zander
Director, Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives
Phone: (701) 328-5345
Email:  bezander@nd.gov

Ohio
John Matthews
Director, Governor’s Faith-based and Community Initiatives
Phone: (614) 466-3398
Email:  john.r.matthews@governor.ohio.gov

Oklahoma
Robin Jones
Director, Oklahoma Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives
Phone: (405) 522-0606
Email:  info@faithlinksok.org

PENNSYLVANIA — one guy is trying (again) to get their own version of the Faith-Based office.  Pennsylvania needs to clean up its own series of scandals involving NONPROFIT groups running PUBLIC institutions first, like Luzerne County Kids4Cash, Penn State Child Abuse by Coach, victims supplied by kid-friendly nonprofit “The Second Mile” in part; and Lackawanna County’s possible inflated bills or GAL-related financial fraud precipitating an FBI raid of the courthouse.  What a joke — and they want MORE of this?  (Answer:  Yes!)

http://www.legis.state.pa.us/WU01/LI/CSM/2011/0/5716.pdf. Why not just move back to England — it has a National Church!

 

Puerto Rico
Pastor Migual Cintrón
Oficina de Enlace con la Organizaciones Comunitarias y de Bas de Fe
Phone: (787) 721-7000
Email:  micintron@fortaleza.gobierno.pr

Texas
Chris Bugbee
Director of Social Impact, OneStar Foundation
Phone: (512) 287-2000
Email:  info@onestarfoundation.org

Utah 
Katherine Smith
Director, Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives
Phone: (801) 538-8875
Email:  kasmith@utah.gov

Virginia
Nikki Nicholau
Director, Office of Volunteerism and Community Service
Phone: (804) 726-7644
Email:  nikki.nicholau@dss.virginia.gov

Washington, D.C.
Pat Henry
Manager, Non-profit & Faith-based Relations
Mayors Office of Partnerships and Grants Development
Phone: (202) 727-0946
Email:  pat.henry@dc.gov

Wisconsin
Sheryl Berdan
Director, Governor’s Office of Community and Faith-based Partnerships
Phone: (414) 227-4344
Email:  sheryl.berdan@wisconsin.gov

INDIANA:  History of the OFCBI:  Effective January 11, 2005

January 2005 – Governor Mitch Daniels enacts Executive Order 05-16, which creates the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, and as a result the OFBCI assumed the responsibilities of the Indiana Commission on Community Service and Volunteerism and the FaithWorks initiative

Here it is.  NB:  Offices for Children often get established shortly before Faith-Based, or Father.  As I keep explaining, faith leaders have a particular interest in youngsters (see last post).

• Executive Order 05-16
  Creation of the office of faith-based and community initiatives  (hardly helpful — it was scanned in sideways.  Turn your laptop….)
• Executive Order 05-15
  Creation of the Indiana department of child services
• (Another site I just saw says that his first executive order on taking office was 05-14, to get rid of collective bargaining for state employees).

 During his time at Lilly, Daniels managed a successful strategy to deflect attacks on Lilly’s Prozac product by a public relations campaign against the drug being waged by the Church of Scientology.

In one interview in 1992, Daniels said of the organization that “it is no church,”

and that people on Prozac were less likely to become victims of the Church.

The Church responded by suing Daniels in a libel suit for $20 million. A judge dismissed the case.^[19]

Eli Lilly experienced dramatic growth during Daniels’ tenure at the company.

Prozac sales made up 30–40% of Lilly’s income during the mid-to-late 1990s,

and Lilly doubled its assets to $12.8 billion and doubled its revenue to $10 billion

during the same period. When Daniels later became Governor of Indiana,

he drew heavily on his former Lilly colleagues to serve as advisers and agency mangers.^[20]

During the same period, Daniels also served

on the board of directors of the Indianapolis Power & Light (IPL).

He resigned from the IPL Board in 2001 to join the federal government, and sold his IPL stock for $1.45 million.

OK, let me run that by again.  Like Bush — whose first two Executive Orders on taking office in 2000 (despite a contested election, see “Florida”) — Mitchells issues these two executive orders on the SECOND DAY in office.  Needless to say, this Office FBCI reports directly to the Governor; I guess this will help make sure the right people get those grants.

MORE FROM THE INDIANA ABOUT US, HISTORY OF THEIR OFBCI, and THE BUILDUP TO THE EXECUTIVE ORDER MAKING ONE:

2003 – The Faithworks initiative is created to assist faith-based and community-based organizations in applying for state and federal grant dollars to support new or existing self-sufficiency programs.

2002 – The Indiana Department of Workforce Development (DWD) was awarded a $1 million grant by the U.S. Department of Labor to engage in outreach and education activities with faith-based and community-based organizations regarding the WorkOne system program monitoring and compliance.

2001 – The Bush Administration creates the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives to strengthen and expand the role of faith-based and community organizations in addressing the nation’s social problems.

2000 – Governor O’Bannon contracts with Indiana’s Department of Workforce Development to manage ICCSV financial and administrative functions, including development of financial policies and procedures.

1997 – The Governor’s Voluntary Action Program (GVAP) is discontinued. The ICCS re-organizes and changes its name to the Indiana Commission on Community Service and Volunteerism (ICCSV) to highlight the expanded role of volunteers in effective community service.

1996 – The Charitable Choice provision is included in the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunities Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) welfare reform legislation. Where non-governmental entities participate in a social service program funded under the PRWORA, FBOs cannot be excluded from participating simply because of their religious character.

During this time, Charitable Choice provisions apply to the following federal programs: Temporary Aid to Needy Families, Welfare-to- Work, Community Services Block Grants, Substance Abuse and Treatment Block Grants, Projects for Assistance in Transition from Homelessness, and other discretionary grant programs for substance abuse prevention and treatment that are administered by SAMHSA.

January 1994 – Governor Evan Bayh establishes the Indiana Commission on Community Service (ICCS) and the Governor’s Voluntary Action Program.

1993 – Congress passes the National Community Service Trust Act, effectively overhauling the nation’s community service and volunteer programs, which established the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), strengthened existing programs and established new ones

Here it is established by Executive Order from “LawWriter.”

107.12 Governor’s office of faith-based and community initiatives.

(A) As used in this section, “organization” means a faith-based or other organization that is exempt from federal income taxation under section 501(c)(3) of the “Internal Revenue Code of 1986,” 100 Stat. 2085, 26 U.S.C. 1, as amended, and provides charitable services to needy residents of this state.

(B) There is hereby established within the office of the governor the governor’s office of faith-based and community initiatives. The office shall:

(1) Serve as a clearinghouse of information on federal, state, and local funding for charitable services performed by organizations;

(2) Encourage organizations to seek public funding for their charitable services;

(3) Assist local, state, and federal agencies in coordinating their activities to secure maximum use of funds and efforts that benefit people receiving charitable services from organizations;

(4) Advise the governor, general assembly, and the advisory board of the governor’s office of faith-based and community initiatives on the barriers that exist to collaboration between organizations and governmental entities and on ways to remove the barriers.

(C) The governor shall appoint an executive director and such other staff as may be necessary to manage the office and perform or oversee the performance of the duties of the office. Within sixty days after being appointed, and every twelve months thereafter, the executive director shall distribute to the advisory board and review with the board a strategic plan. The executive director shall report to the board at least quarterly on proposed initiatives and policies. A report shall include the condition of the budget and the finances of the office.

TOPEKA — The top social services official in Kansas is stepping down after less than a year in office, Gov. Sam Brownback’s office announced Thursday, ending a tenure marked by controversy over administrative decisions and the governor’s policies.Brownback said Social and Rehabilitation Services Secretary Rob Siedlecki is leaving the administration, effective Dec. 31. Siedlecki has held the job since January, when the Republican governor took office.Some legislators, particularly Democrats, began criticizing Siedlecki even before he was confirmed in late March. One issue was his reorganization of top SRS management, and another was the administration’s pursuit of faith-based social services initiatives.

{{THESE TWO GO TOGETHER.  HOPEFULLY SOMETIME SOON OTHERS WILL “GET” that this IS what “FAITH-BASED OFFICES” are principally engaged in, under the guise and sales pitch of ‘social services’ and helping.}}

Some legislators were put off by the administration’s moves to involve faith-based groups in programs, fearing money would flow to conservative, evangelical Christian organizations with little experience in providing assistance, such as substance abuse treatment. But SRS said it is will be partners with existing organizations to improve services.** Siedlecki also drew criticism for plans to close local SRS offices in some cities, including Lawrence, the state’s sixth-largest

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2011/12/15/2141817/srs-director-to-step-down-at-the.html#storylink=cpy

Siedlicki, stepping down from Kansas SRS:  “It’s a Calling Not a Job”

Where are state liaisons and offices housed? Not all state offices are housed within governor’s offices, although some are, such as in Michigan and Alabama. Rather, many state offices are housed within other state-level departments, typically in a department of social services. States that fall under this category include New Jersey and Oklahoma. In other states, governors have opted to house their state office or liaison within an existing independent nonprofit organization. Two states—Texas and Florida—house their state offices within nonprofit organizations, while Iowa refers FBCOs to one main nonprofit organization.