Rev. Danny Fisher

Over at the Washington Post/Newsweek endeavor On Faith, the indispensable Robert Thurman joins other panelists in responding to the hot-button question, “Should the Obama Administration let faith-based programs that receive government grants discriminate against those they hire or serve?” Columbia University’s own “Buddha Bob” says:

First of all, the U.S. government should not fund “faith-based programs” at all, in order to maintain the separation between church and state, which is foundational to our American system. This principle was badly breached by the Bush administration under pressure from the “Moral Majority” and other fundamentalist groups, but it must now be uncompromisingly restored: it is crucially important in the constant struggle to prevent the kind of religious triumphalism that caused the persecutions in European history that our American forebears were fleeing, and still remains a major danger to world security.

On the other hand, if religious organizations are running programs that help people in non-religious ways, such as helping the poor with food and shelter, helping prisoners with education, helping people during times of disasters, they should of course be funded, but only on condition that they not proselytize their religious beliefs while dispensing the needed assistance. They may find their satisfaction by demonstrating how their faith makes them charitable, kind, and compassionate, while restraining themselves from using others’ vulnerabilities as opportunities for forcing their ideas upon them.

Read other panelist responses here.