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GOLDSMITH IS COMING: An Apology From Indiana to the Rest
of United States
By
Troy Brownfield
While the country watches rain pour on the Inaugural festivities
and various panels convene to confirm or deny George W. Bush’s
nominations for cabinet posts, one man with a long history in
Indiana may be sliding into a position just below the radar
of most of the American media.
That man is former Indianpolis mayor Stephen Goldsmith. While it’s unlikely that he’ll be the Secretary
of Housing and Urban Development as once suggested, it appears
almost certain that he’ll be running a new Bush creation, The
Office of Faith-Based Action.
Granted, such an office or position isn’t official yet, but
when it is, expect Goldsmith to land at the helm.
Goldsmith made a name for himself in the Republican party
over his practices here in the Hoosier state regarding “privatization”.
For an astoundingly thorough look at how Goldsmith stuck
it to Indy, go to www.nuvo.net
and look-up Jack Miller’s brilliant article from this past week’s
edition of Nuvo Newsweekly (Jan, 11-18).
Miller’s piece can give you a solid understanding of why the
man himself is flawed. Personally, I’d like to discuss why an Office
of Faith-Based Action is a bad idea.
I noted this once before in one of my previous Shotgun
Reviews columns, but it bears repeating: a government sanctioned
office that oversees the disbursement of public funds into faith-based
programs almost certainly coutnermands the separation of Church
and State afforded by The Constitution. Even some noted religious leaders, like the
Reverend Forrest Church of New York City, oppose the notion
of the office on Constitutional grounds.
Frankly, what scares me the most is the obvious.
In a presidential administration run by a man that is
very explicit about his Christian convictions, how can we be
sure that monies disbursed to faith-based organizations would
be spread fairly among denominations? I’d go out a limb to say that a program run
by a tiny Church in Tennessee would be 100 times more likely
to get funds for a fatherhood or mentoring seminar then a huge
Muslim group in a major city. I won’t speculate on the racial or economic
component of that, but the fact is that this country has always
been run by white Chrisitian men with very few women, Jews,
Blacks, Asians, Hispanics or what-have-you getting much of a
say. Therefore, it’s
not outrageous to think that the handing out of money would
be very one-sided.
Also, arguably the most popular religious figure in this country,
the Reverend Jesse Jackson, has suddenly been side-lined by
a scandal. One wonders if the avowed Democrat Jackson could have successfully
petitioned such an office for program funding when the president
knows that he’s on the other political side.
Whatever the public may make of Jackson, he’s fought
hard for civil rights and could surely come up with ideas to
put political money into good public works.
You know, I’m equally mystified as to why you’d appoint
a secular politician like Goldsmith to run such an office when
a competent man like Jackson is around. But like I said, he’s backed off of the political
arena for the time being because of the scandal involving an
extramarital affair and his child from that affair. Funny how that came out right now.
Anyway . . . honestly, our country has survived for 225 years
without an Office of Faith-Based Action. Why start one now? It seems to be that this is just a brazen attempt by a new president
(that the Supreme Court elected) to push his own personal religious
and moral agenda into the government of the country.
That’s not entirely new, but to actually FUND that agenda
bears close scrutiny from those providing the funds: we, the
people.
Troy Brownfield is the Editor-in-Chief of Shotgun Reviews.
He recommends again that you check out Jack Miller’s
Goldsmith piece at www.nuvo.net.
Email Troy at psikotyk@aol.com
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