chris hiosis - Arz-e-Pak

Faith 23
Republican Party state committees, or 18 of50 states, along with
large minorities in the remaining states. Forty-five senators and
186 members of the House of Representatives earned approval
ratings of80 to 100 percent from the three most influential Christian
Right advocacy groups: the Christian Coalition, Eagle Forum,
and Family Resource CounciP' Tom Coburn, elected in 2004 as
senator from Oklahoma, called for a ban on abortion in his campaign,
going so far as to call for the death penalty for doctors who
carry out abortions once the ban went into place. Senator John
Thune is a creationist. Jim DeMint, senator from South Carolina,
wants to ban single mothers from teaching in schools.)(l The 2004
Election Day exit polls found that 23 percent ofvoters identified
themselves as evangelical Christians; Bush won 78 percent of
their vote. A plurality ofvoters said that the most imponant issue
in the campaign had been "moral values."ll
The Bush administration has steadily diverted billions ofdollars
of taxpayer money from secular and governmental socialservice
organizations to faith-based organizations, bankrolling
churches and organizations that seek to dismande American
democracy and create a theocratic stateY The role of education
and social-welfare agencies is being supplanted by these churches,
nearly all of them evangelical, and the wall between church and
state is being disassembled. These groups can and usually do discriminate
by refusing to hire gays and lesbians, people of other
faiths and those who do not embrace their strict version ofChristianity.
Christian clinics that treat addictions or do pregnancy
counseling (usually with the aim ofpreventing abortion) do not
have to hire trained counselors or therapists. The only requirement
ofa new hire is usually that he or she be a "Bible-believing
Christian." In fiscal year 2003, faith-based organizations received
8.1 percent ofthe competitive social-service grant budget.n In fiscal
year 2004, faith-based organizations received $2.005 billion in
funding-l0.3 percent of federal competitive service grants/us
The federal government awarded more than $2.15 billion in com-