Hate crimes are message crimes

The Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act is slowing working its way through Congress. It’s been ten years since hate crimes legislation was first introduced; it’s been a slow, painful process even suffering a veteo at the hand of Bush (the lesser). This year with a majority in Congress and a [...]

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Tokenism on Obama’s faith-based advisory council

In today’s Washington Blade, I published an editorial critical of the appointment of the Human Rights Campaign’s Rev. Henry Knox to President Obama’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. The council is not only a continuation but and expansion of the previous administration’s federal faith-based initiative protections. The program ignores hiring protections [...]

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Shame on Islam! Two gay men murdered in Baghdad

The AP reported yesterday that the bodies of two gay men have been found in Baghdad’s Shiite slum of Sadr City after a leading cleric repeatedly condemned homosexuality, an Iraqi police official said Saturday.
The killings come after Shiite cleric Sattar al-Battat repeatedly condemned homosexuality during recent Friday prayers, saying Islam prohibits homosexuality. Homosexual acts are [...]

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An open letter to the Republican traitors (from a former Republican)

This term, I am teaching MBA students in Florida every other weekend. This requires a two night stay-over at a hotel. Last Saturday night I was channel surfing and came across a fascinating interview of Frank Schaeffer by D.L. Hughley. Frank Schaeffer was the son of Francis Schaeffer, arguably the founder [...]

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The deed is done

As the Senate passes the stimulus package tonight , let’s be real clear that $500 million was included to fund faith-based initiatives and $400 million to fund HIV prevention was eliminated.  
Yup, the crazies get a half a billion in taxpayer dollars to proselytize and “legally” discriminate in hiring. And desperately needed funds to [...]

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Misguided stimulus dollars

The proposed economic stimulus bill that is being bantered in Congress includes a provision of $100 million for grants to faith-based organizations.  This is contained in HR 1, The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 at pg. 141.   These funds would be made available through the Compassion Capital Fund, the HHS funding vehilce [...]

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Obama names Joshua DuBois new head of White House faith-based initiative

Yesterday, President Obama named Joshua DuBois, the 26-year-old who ran religious outreach for his presidential campaign, to head the White House’s new office of faith-based programs.  I think this should cause some pause.
During the previous administration, I worked for Dare Mighty Things, the federal contractor that provided technical support for the faith-based initiative known as the [...]

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Congress Ponders Spur to Giving as Feds Rely More on Charities

As Congress last week considered extending tax incentives for charitable giving, it received new information that the federal government is increasingly relying on charities to deliver health care, education and human services in America. That increase was reflected in more federal money to nonprofit organizations and a growth in the number of public charities, according [...]

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Open funding for 2007 Communities Empowering Youth (CEY) grant

The Office of Community Services (OCS) is now accepting applications for funding from the Compassion Capital Fund (CCF) Communities Empowering Youth (CEY) program. To view the full program announcement, please click here.
The CEY program seeks to build the organizational capacity, sustainability, and effectiveness of experienced organizations working through community collaborations to reduce gang involvement, youth [...]

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Editorial: The great pumpkin goes to Washington

I don’t care a fig about our next president’s personal religious views. The candidate can worship the Great Pumpkin, for all I care, as long as he or she doesn’t assume that the rest of us do too, and that the Great Pumpkin told him to do things such as, to take a case at [...]

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