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 100s of Christian 'think tanks' have sprung up
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beskeptigal
SFN Die Hard

USA
3834 Posts

Posted - 02/06/2006 :  05:08:16  Show Profile Send beskeptigal a Private Message
This topic overlaps politics and media issues but the core is one of religious fanaticism. This all started when I was answering a post which used the liberal media bias cliche'. At first I found some supposed study from UCLA claiming to have found liberal bias was real. That didn't jive with what I had read before, What Liberal Media? by Eric Alterman. Then I found a media matters comment that the UCLA 'study' was not factual and in fact had been written by a card carrying conservative who didn't bother to mention that fact. So this went on and I noticed a whole slew of "liberal bias is real" sites like the usual right wing counter attacks, using similar web site names, not citing any facts, just making claims.

Since the media fact check sites began like Factcheck and Media Matters, there have been a number of counter sites claiming to be equally exposing the truth. The Leader in Documenting, Exposing and Neutralizing Liberal Media Bias is one example of a counterpoint site. When web sites spring up to hold the news media accountable, there is a flood of web sites that quickly follow, some with deceptively similar names to trick viewers to the sites, and soon the truth is drowning among sites yelling the same lies the fact check sites are out to expose.

Then I went looking into a group here in Bellevue where I live (Seattle suburb), Washington Institute for Policy Studies, that has been working to stack all the courts with Christian conservatives and Bush has been appointing them right and left. This same group chose both Alito and Roberts. It was hard to find information on the Institute itself.

In looking for it, I found an endless list of right wing Christian Institutes/Groups/Foundations/Think tanks and so on. Just look at some of the hits with this Google search: alito appointment Christian think tank for an eye opener into the incredible number of foundations with missions to promote their world view via first influencing the USA's government.

I had no idea how many of these policy influencing, well organized, well funded groups are out there. They are ready to counter any negative news, they're ready to challenge anything they don't agree with, they're stacking the courts with judges, and they've been planning organizing and acting since the 80s.

It seems a bit overwhelming that there is that much money and organization pulling off the attack on everything non-Christian. It looks to be a very dangerous trend.

filthy
SFN Die Hard

USA
14408 Posts

Posted - 02/06/2006 :  05:20:36   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send filthy a Private Message
"Fundementalist Christian" and "Think" are a contradiction in terms....

Hoard canned goods and stockpile ammunition, 'cause these assholes will settle for nothing less than total domination of society.

And forward into the brave, new 14th Century we'll go....


"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)

"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres


"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude

Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,

and Crypto-Communist!

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Starman
SFN Regular

Sweden
1613 Posts

Posted - 02/06/2006 :  06:54:23   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send Starman a Private Message
How much of this crap is funded by taxpayers?
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HalfMooner
Dingaling

Philippines
15831 Posts

Posted - 02/06/2006 :  12:44:22   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send HalfMooner a Private Message
Very scary!

filthy fifed:
quote:
Hoard canned goods and stockpile ammunition, 'cause these assholes will settle for nothing less than total domination of society.

Even a few months ago, I would have taken your words as being somewhat paranoid and extreme. But no longer. Good advice, filthy, just in case Bush's budding theocracy decides not to accept their impending ouster by democratic means. It's always bothered me that the Right in America was much better armed than the the Center and democratic Left.


Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive.
Edited by - HalfMooner on 02/06/2006 13:11:48
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beskeptigal
SFN Die Hard

USA
3834 Posts

Posted - 02/07/2006 :  03:36:09   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send beskeptigal a Private Message
quote:
Originally posted by Starman

How much of this crap is funded by taxpayers?


Oh My God!

I am totally overwhelmed by this latest inquiry. I started with Google, faith based search.

I had no idea it was this bad. Bush has drowned the entire federal government in the great Christian flood.


Faith-Based and Community Initiatives
Guidance to Faith-Based and Community Organizations on Partnering with the Federal Government


"The indispensable and transforming work of faith-based and other charitable service groups must be encouraged. Government cannot be replaced by charities, but it can and should welcome them as partners. We must heed the growing consensus across America that successful government social programs work in fruitful partnership with community-serving and faith-based organizations."

~ President George W. Bush

"By Executive Order, effective immediately, each of the following Cabinet agencies will create its own Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives to work in tandem with the White House OFBCI, to make federal grants available to Faith-Based and Community Initiatives nationwide.

* Cabinet Centers for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives:
* Department of Health and Human Services;
* Department of Housing and Urban Development;
* Department of Labor;
* Department of Justice; and
* Department of Education.

FaithBasedCommunityInitiatives.org is a convenient web gateway providing direct links to each of these 5 federal agencies and their respective grant programs. We also provide direct links to Charitable Choice Organization for Faith Groups as well as a List of State Liaisons for Faith-Based Initiatives. Grant descriptions, applications, instructions, qualifications, and deadlines are now just a click away. Check back often as we will be posting additional links and information as it becomes available."

"Created in 2002, the Administration for Children and Families' Compassion Capital Fund (CCF) is a key component of the President's Faith-Based and Community Initiative."

What is ATR?
"ATR is a competitive discretionary grant program funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, which will provide vouchers to clients for purchase of substance abuse clinical treatment and recovery support services. Goals of the program are to expand capacity, support client choice, and increase the array of faith-based and community-based providers for clinical treatment and recovery support services.

How long is the grant period for ATR?
The ATR grants were awarded for a 3-year period. Annual continuation awards depend on the availability of funds and Grantee progress in meeting project goals and objectives.

Are faith-based providers eligible to apply?
Faith-based organizations may participate as providers of clinical treatment and/or recovery support services in each State or Tribal organization. They may not apply independently to SAMHSA for ATR grants."

$14 million in federal faith-based money goes to Pat Robertson

News article
"DeCastro said Florida's Faith-Based Association will get about $17,000 to train other faith-based groups in the state about how to tap federal money without running afoul of the law.
The grant was a tiny part of a $20.4 million, three-year grant to a coalition of groups for drug treatment programs in Florida.

"Some people think that the money would be used for proselytizing," DeCastro said."

U.S. Department of Labor
Center for Faith-Based & Community Initiatives


Remember this?
Faith-Based Parks? Creationists meet the Grand Canyon

Faith-Based Community Economic Development: Principles & Practices, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston

"Welcome to the Interfaith Health Program supporting the Faith-Based and Community Initiatives at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR)."

I was going to post a few of the hundreds of private organizations the Google search hit but after 3 pages of government sites this one was all I could take. There are pages and pages and they're all on a mission.

"The Web of Creation was established to foster the movement for personal and social transformation to a just and sustainable world from religious perspectives."

This is really bad. Bush has put some religious crap in every single department of the Federal government from the DOD to the CDC. No wonder NASA got their own personal mentor.

Picture the last scene from the movie The Body Snatchers....
Edited by - beskeptigal on 02/07/2006 03:37:45
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