Six Words

Last week Barack made his move to try and steal evangelicals away from the GOP, offering to funnel federal dollars into religious groups performing important community functions, something that was high on President Bush's agenda.


The New York Times says Barack messed up the pander with six words.

“First,” he said, “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.”

Where's the problem?

That little phrase between the dashes — “or against the people you hire” — ignited a political explosion. “Fraud,” declared Bill Donohue of the Catholic League. “What Obama wants,” Mr. Donohue said, is “to secularize the religious workplace.”

Being Dr. Evil is a tough job, and let's face it - while it comes to him naturally and he shows enormous talent, Barack's still wearing his training wheels.

Religious groups that know the law have long agreed that federal money cannot be used for proselytizing or discriminating against beneficiaries. But they have never agreed that taking religious considerations into account in hiring personnel — certainly for top positions if not for all staffing — should be considered discrimination. And they point to the religious exemption in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and subsequent legislative and Supreme Court decisions to back this assertion.

Everyone knows that religious organizations must be allowed to discriminate in hiring in order to maintain their character. As Times contributor Jeffrey Rosen from Georgetown University writes:

“It’s not hard to understand why faith-based organizations need to discriminate on the basis of religion to maintain their essentially religious character,” Mr. Rosen wrote. “A Jewish organization forced to hire Baptists soon ceases to be Jewish at all.”

Which is why those six words turned Barack's attempt to buy religious votes with federal dollars into "NO SALE."