First up from The God Machine this week is an interesting study about religious ministries and the increasing interest in some circles about public faith-based initiatives. To hear proponents, including the president tell it, ministries deserve taxpayer-financed contracts, not to fund religion, but to get results — religious charities, the theory goes, are simply more effective than their secular counterparts.<\/p>\n
The claim has always been controversial for years — evidence supporting the faith-based contention has been elusive — and this week, Bush & Co. suffered another setback<\/a> when a faith-based rehabilitation program for prisoners failed to deliver on its promises in Oklahoma.<\/p>\n As the Associated Press reported, corrections officials in Oklahoma turned to a group called Genesis One for help in dealing with inmates who are about to be released. Oklahoma officials don’t currently give Genesis One tax funds but may be preparing to do so this November under the terms of a new state law that requires corrections officials to partner with faith-based groups on reentry programs.<\/p>\n Key to Genesis One’s program is attendance at a local church. John Easley, who directs the program, says participants must be willing to “accept God.” He is adamant that the program will not work without a religious conversion first. The organization claims to be open to inmates of all faiths, but its Web site speaks strictly in Christian terms.<\/p>\n A study prepared for the Oklahoma Sentencing Commission by the Criminal Justice Resource Center “shows little difference between recidivism among participants in Genesis One and other inmates leaving the prison system,” the AP reported.<\/p>\n Steven W. Taylor, a member of the Oklahoma Supreme Court and a Commission member, reported that the recidivism rate for Genesis One males over a five-year period was 36.9 percent, the same as the general rate for all inmates incarcerated by the Department of Corrections.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n In light of the results, Oklahoma will scale back its support for the religious program? No such luck — the Oklahoma Sentencing Commission said the study will have no effect. Faith, apparently, isn’t just part of the program; it’s part of the backing for the program. * The religious right movement lost yet another icon this week, when the Rev. D. James Kennedy, head of Coral Ridge Ministries and Reclaiming America for Christ, announced his retirement<\/a>. James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, called Kennedy one of Christianity’s “truly significant figures.” He was also one of the nation’s more notorious theocrats<\/a> and fundamentalist extremists.<\/p>\n * Televangelist Bill Killer, best known for recently equating a vote for Mitt Romney with a vote for Satan, is being pulled off the air<\/a> at his local television station after some harsh criticism of Islam. In a May 2 broadcast, the televangelist said Islam was a “1,400-year-old lie from the pits of hell” and called the Prophet Muhammad a “murdering pedophile.” He also called the Quran a “book of fables and a book of lies.” A few weeks ago, officials from the Council on American Islamic Relations wrote a letter to the TV station’s owners asking for an investigation of the show, and shortly thereafter, WTOG-TV, a CBS-owned station that airs the CW network locally, cancelled Keller’s program.<\/p>\n * Remember Ted Haggard? He’s not exactly ready for a comeback, but he is soliciting funds<\/a> from former supporters to help finance his new academic work. Haggard is apparently seeking a master’s degree in counseling at the University of Phoenix. “It looks as though it will take two years for us to have adequate earning power again, so we are looking for people who will help us monthly for two years,” Haggard said in an email fundraising message. “During that time we will continue as full-time students, and then, when I graduate, we won’t need outside support any longer.”<\/p>\n * After initially slighting<\/a> a war widow who successfully challenged the administration’s refusal to allow the use of the Wiccan symbol of faith on government-issued grave markers, George W. Bush did the right thing<\/a> yesterday and called Roberta Stewart, whose husband, Sgt. Patrick Stewart was killed in combat in Afghanistan, to express his condolences. “I just now got off the phone and personally spoke with President Bush,” Stewart said. “I am happy to say that he did give me his deepest condolences. I will give him the benefit of the doubt and I do have to give him kudos that he at least took the time to call, give his condolences, and apologize for the VA problem.”<\/p>\n * And after a bizarre incident<\/a> involving my friends at Americans United for Separation of Chuch and State, “imprecatory prayers” are finally getting the attention<\/a> they deserve.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" First up from The God Machine this week is an interesting study about religious ministries and the increasing interest in some circles about public faith-based initiatives. To hear proponents, including the president tell it, ministries deserve taxpayer-financed contracts, not to fund religion, but to get results — religious charities, the theory goes, are simply more […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12739\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nOther items from the God Machine this week:<\/p>\n