The anonymous author of the piece bemoans Obama's lack of initiative to overturn former President George W. Bush's 2002 executive order which permitted faith-based programs to "hire and fire on religious grounds." The idea that federal funding will continue to support the tactics by these programs is disappointing to the author, especially considering Obama's vehement campaign messages about the separation of church and state—now contradicted by his actions as President.
In their historical account of the politicization of religion in the United States, The God Strategy, David Domke and Kevin Coe describe how the Republican party under George W. Bush "elevated the gravity of issues such as abortion and same-sex relationships by calling for constitutional amendments and a reformed judiciary." In concordance with this concept, Bush's faith-based initiatives that permitted discrimination based on religion seems to challenge and even deny the Constitutional assertion of the separation of church and state in this country.
As the editorial notes, Obama posited that faith-based organizations who receive federal money "'can't use the grant money to proselytize to the people you help and you can't discriminate against them.'" How then, does his limited reform of Bush's faith-based programs reflect on this promise? Domke and Coe's characterization of the Republican party singling out salient social issues like gay rights for federal reform in the 2000s seems very apt considering President Bush's notorious pandering to the Christian Right for support. But Obama, who distanced himself as much as possible from the "politics of the last eight years" in his campaign, has aligned himself almost sheepishly, with Bush's unconstitutional laws concerning faith-based initiatives. In order to establish his own presidential reputation, how can Obama remedy and change the faith-based programs to suit the Constitution while simultaneously maintaining their effectiveness?
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