Obama is using hundreds of fine words to say nothing again. The latest nothing purports to affirm a commitment to government funding for faith-based initiatives. Before conservatives and evangelicals swallow Obama’s latest poison disguised as pablum, they need to read the fine print. They must pay attention to all those words, skillfully crafted to hide the truth that any money handed out by an Obama administration comes with some strings that look more like manacles. There is nothing faith-based about government money, and if Obama’s government hands it out, it will come with the provision that the “faith” part be expunged in practice. The faith-based initiative that takes money from a socialist will soon find that expressing the faith on which the initiative is based will be the first big prohibition.

Obama uses a pretty word as bait to lure his prey within reach. Obama calls his plan a partnership. Listeners would be well advised to remember what a partnership is like. The one with the most money usually calls all the shots, because of the risk of losing all that money. Remember the saying, “He who pays the piper calls the tune.” If an Obama socialist administration hands out money to anyone, the administration will decide what faith that money underwrites. Socialism pays lip service to humanitarian goals that sound like Christian service, but Christians who want to perform humanitarian service the Christian way need to think twice before they take money from a socialist who wants to perform humanitarian service the socialist way.

Hear Obama’s own words:

“First, 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 the people you hire – on the basis of their religion. Second, federal dollars that go directly to churches, temples and mosques can only be used on secular programs.”[1]

There are several red flags here for people who serve the community as an outgrowth of their Christian obedience to God. (Because I am a Christian, I can’t pretend to speak for the impact on other faiths, but I suspect there is a lot of similarity.)

·        When Christians help other people, they always let the people know that the act of love is an outgrowth of the love of Christ within themselves. When I read what Obama says, I ask myself if he would expect to forbid that simple testimony.

·        When Christians set up programs to help others, they routinely expect the people who work for the program to live by the same principles as themselves. When I read what Obama says, I ask myself if he would even allow those principles to be considered as bona fide occupational qualifications.

·        When Christians do anything as an expression of their faith, they speak about their faith, they give thanks to God, and they point program participants to the same faith that blesses the program leaders. The word proselytize, embedded innocently in Obama’s statement, warns the reader that any attempt to say something such as, “I know that Jesus loves you, just as He loves me,” would likely be classified as an infraction of the contract between the payer, Obama’s socialist administration, and the payee, a faith-based initiative, initiated as an act of loving obedience to the Lord Jesus.

·        Finally, Obama says that his administration would fund only “secular” programs. That is a nail in the coffin for faith-based initiatives. When a church sets up a shelter for women who are abused, it does not do it as a secular program. It takes this action as an act of love and care for people that is consistent with a living faith in Christ. It isn’t about simply putting a roof over their head and food in their mouths with no regard for the whole person. Faith-based initiatives operate on the principle that we are servants of each other, modeling our behavior on Christ who came to be servant of all.

Obama may profess to be a Christian, but his Christianity is in a box. Most Christians do not consider their faith to be in their “religion” box, separated completely from the rest of their life, which is in a “secular” box. For the Christians I  know, our faith is not part of us; it is us. Christianity is not just some abstract belief in God. Christianity is a way of life, and everything in our lives happens in the context of our faith. We cannot help people without sharing our faith. If we try to do that, then we are lying about ourselves.

Obama clearly believes that Christian faith, or Jewish faith, or Islamic faith, or any other, can be set aside for humanitarian reasons. Most believers in any faith say that their faith informs their lives. They can’t take it off like a jacket and hang it up at the door of a humanitarian program.

It has always been risky for anybody to take money from anybody else. That aphorism about paying the piper really does apply in most instances. It would be a lot easier for faith-based initiatives to keep their distance from money handed out by a socialist than for them to keep their distance from the “faith” part of their initiative, if their faith actually means anything. Conservatives and evangelicals need to remember one truth about Obama: Obama is a socialist, and socialists put their faith in government. A socialist will only give money to a faith-based initiative in order to prevent that initiative from acting with any faith. Beware.