It’s Not Penance Unless You’re Sorry, Though

This is just outrageous. After utterly failing to do its job in the aftermath of Katrina, necessitating private organizations and citizens to help those in crisis, FEMA has announced it will “use taxpayer money to reimburse churches and other religious organizations that have opened their doors to provide shelter, food and supplies to survivors of hurricanes Katrina and Rita.” Notice that any nonreligious organizations who may have helped (which includes groups having provided much-needed emergency medical care) are shit outta luck, not to mention, say, a small restaurateur who fed and sheltered people on his own dime. And while I feel for small churches who took in survivors and have, as a result, experienced huge electric and water bills, the federal government ought to be negotiating with the utility companies to waive the bills, for anyone who provided refuge, sustenance, and/or medical care for survivors, rather than handing out money to churches. But I guess that wouldn’t really serve to further ingratiate President Überpatriot Christian Cowboy to his faith-based devotees.

"I believe it's appropriate for the federal government to assist the faith community because of the scale and scope of the effort and how long it's lasting," said Joe Becker, senior vice president for preparedness and response with the Red Cross.

Civil liberties groups called the decision a violation of the traditional boundary between church and state, accusing FEMA of trying to restore its battered reputation by playing to religious conservatives.

"What really frosts me about all this is, here is an administration that didn't do its job and now is trying to dig itself out by making right-wing groups happy," said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State…

For churches, synagogues and mosques that have taken in hurricane survivors, FEMA's decision presents a quandary. Some said they were eager to get the money and had begun tallying their costs, from electric bills to worn carpets. Others said they probably would not apply for the funds, fearing donations

"Volunteer labor is just that: volunteer," said the Rev. Robert E. Reccord, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's North American Mission Board. "We would never ask the government to pay for it."

[…]

Becker said he and his staff at the Red Cross also urged FEMA to allow reimbursement of religious groups. Ordinarily, Becker said, churches provide shelter for the first days after a disaster, then the Red Cross takes over. But in a storm season that has stretched every Red Cross shelter to the breaking point, church buildings must for the first time house evacuees indefinitely.

Even so, Lynn, of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said that federal reimbursement is inappropriate.

"The good news is that this work is being done now, but I don't think a lot of people realize that a lot of these organizations are actively working to obtain federal funds. That's a strange definition of charity," he said.

Lynn added that he accepts the need for the government to coordinate with religious groups in a major disaster, but not to "pay for their good works."

"We've never complained about using a religious organization as a distribution point for food or clothing or anything else," Lynn said. But "direct cash reimbursements would be unprecedented."

Even the plonking Salvation Army is lobbying for reimbursement.

Even more than the annoyance that my tax dollars are going to churches, or the annoyance that solutions which would not blur the line separating church and state are ignored for the political positioning of a deservedly unpopular president, is my blind fury at the fact that this is further evidence that privatization does not work. Over and over we hear from conservatives how liberals want to turn the entire country into a nanny-state and make government responsible for things that private individuals, charities, and corporations could (and should) do. Over and over we hear the underfunding of social programs to pay for the tax breaks which favor the wealthy, the tax breaks for corporations, and the increasingly frustrating tax exemption for churches, synagogues, mosques, and religious organizations, justified by the conservative mantra that private individuals, charities, and corporations will step up, given the money to do so, and fill the role liberals would have the government play. Well it isn’t bloody happening! Conservatism doesn’t fucking work. End of story.

How I look forward to the day when I can again pay my fair share of taxes to a government that uses it to keep buying civilization, rather than trying to destroy it.