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"Clergy Call for End to Government Subsidized Religion"

Press Release from The Interfaith Alliance

Washington, April 26—Today, The Interfaith Alliance and a several national religious leaders called on President Bush to dismantle the White House Office of Faith Based and Community Initiatives, calling it an ill-conceived, unconstitutional experiment that creates government sponsored religion, and threatens the integrity of democracy and the sanctity of religion.

The leaders warned that if the initiative is not ended, it will continue to be a political football, no matter which party controls the White House.

“The whole faith-based initiative, to use a biblical term, was born of sin and conceived in iniquity,” said the Rev. Amos Brown, Senior Pastor of Third Baptist Church in San Francisco. “It was established as a ploy and a tool to get the African-American community away from its prophetic witness.”

“The so-called faith-based initiative was a bad idea as a campaign promise in 1999 and it is even worse today after we have seen the bureaucratic and political realties growing out of this initiative,” explained the Rev. Welton Gaddy, President of The Interfaith Alliance.

“Our opposition to the faith-based initiative is not an opposition to religiom.” noted Imam Mahdi Bray, Executive Director of the Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation. “Religion has always played an important role in America…Realistically, the faith-based initiative has really been the cash cow of the Christian Right.”

“I think most religious people would say that any faith that is truly authentic must be both free and voluntary,” added Bishop Jane Holmes Dixon, Senior Advisor at The Interfaith Alliance. “People should be able to get help from the government without having to sacrifice their civil or religious rights.” Rev. Gaddy announced, “The Interfaith calls on all 2006 congressional candidates and all 2008 presidential candidates to state their positions on government sponsorship of religion.”

Related Link:  The Bush Faith Based Initiative: Pay Back For The Religious Right

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