President George W. Bush strayed not far from the White House today to rehash one of his favorite themes: Why we should all have to pay for someone else’s religion.
Speaking before the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast at a Washington, D.C. hotel, Bush extolled the “faith-based” initiative, which entails directing millions of federal dollars to religious groups allegedly so they can provide social services.
“One of the reasons that I am such a strong believer in the power of our faith-based institutions is that they add something the government never can, and that is love,” the president told the religious gathering.
He then said that Catholic groups all over the land are “leading America’s armies of compassion. You are changing America one heart, one soul at a time, and I thank you.”
The president’s push for state-funded faith didn’t stop there. He then launched into a tired promotion of welfare for Catholic schools. He backed requiring all taxpayers to prop up these church-run institutions.
“I am worried that too many of these schools are closing – and our nation needs to do something about it,” said Bush. He added that he would conduct “a meeting at the White House to discuss the difference America’s parochial schools are making in the lives of some our neediest children.”
Instead of meeting to extol virtues of private schools, the president should conduct a study group on our Constitution, paying particular attention to the First Amendment. He could do so in honor of the anniversary of Thomas Jefferson’s birthday, which is today.
Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence and the Virginia Act for Establishing Religious Freedom, was among several Founding Fathers who understood the importance of keeping government and religion separate. Jefferson, unlike Bush, knew that government involvement in religion was not necessary. Indeed Jefferson realized that government meddling in religion would ultimately harm both institutions.
In the Virginia religious freedom act’s preamble, Jefferson condemned public financing of religion.
Jefferson wrote that compelling people “to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions” they don’t believe “is sinful and tyrannical” and that even forcing a citizen to “support this or that teacher of his own religious persuasion, is depriving him of the comfortable liberty of giving his contributions to the particular pastor whose morals he make his pattern ….”
Jefferson’s words in favor of religious freedom and the right to support only the religions you choose (if any) remain powerfully passionate and eloquent. His words are cited today be individuals worldwide who yearn for freedom of conscience. Bush has offered no defense of religious liberty to be remembered. He instead has ignobly led a drive to trample the First Amendment and meld government and religion.
The words of Jefferson stand as a stinging rebuke to the tired rhetoric of the current occupant of the White House.
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