Once upon a time, a long, long year or two ago, I was roundly and purely opposed to any sort of public funding for faith-based initiatives. I had several long arguments with a friend of mine, another liberal atheist who nevertheless had a more pragmatic position on the topic. As usually happens with this particular friend, I eventually saw the wisdom in much of what he was saying, and my own position has moderated since then.
In the same vein as Saintcog's excellent diary Why This Atheist Supports Obama's Faith Based Initiative, allow me to describe my experience at the Lakes Region St. Vincent De Paul food pantry today.
I'm staying with my aunt on vacation in New Hampshire this week. One of the things she asked in return was that I come volunteer with her at the food pantry this evening, which I agreed to do. Several things stood out to me in my time there.
First: there is no doubt that this is a conservative faith-based charity program. Most of the open wall space was covered with crucifixes, hanging rosaries, framed or mounted quotations from Scripture, and even a framed portrait of President Bush. Jo, the boss, led all the volunteers in prayer (most especially For The Troops) before the doors opened.
Second: they had rows upon rows of necessities stacked up and ready to hand out, no strings attached, to anyone who asked. There were shelves filled to overflowing with nonperishables from canned food drives; there was laundry detergent, razors, diapers, tampons, deodorant, toys, children's books. There were boxes full of cooked chicken and pastrami and dozens of packages of bread and hamburger buns that were all leftovers from a Lyons Club meeting earlier in the week.
Dozens of people came through--the working poor, the homeless, alcoholics and drug addicts, all sorts of needy people. Most were regular visitors who were on a first-name basis with the volunteers. Several were brand new and signed up this very night.
Not only did Jo hand out all the food these people needed for their families (many with several very young children), she also checked to make sure that everyone who qualified for additional governmental assistance through WIC or other New Hampshire state programs had the information they needed to sign up.
There was no entrance test, there was no shibboleth. There were no questions like "so what church do you go to?" or "have you accepted Jesus into your life?" There was just a lot of supplies donated by generous people, being handed out by generous people, to people who needed them.
But they need to keep their freezer running and they need to keep the lights on.
There's no way you're going to convince me they're not giving back to the community--the whole community--enough to be considered a viable community investment. Assisting faith-based charities like this one is no violation of the separation of church and state, so long as the assistance they provide is not religiously restricted. They're working towards the same goals that we are:
Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. Then there will be equality, as it is written: "He who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little did not have too little."2 Corinthians 8:13-15 (NIV)
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