Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Pondering outcomes...

This bitch caught the news yesterday that The 5 to 4 Supremes spat out a few rulings on some shit.

The ruling that tax payers can't sue about Faith Based funding sort of made my afro throb.

Now catch thy knee before it jerketh! A bitch has no quarrel against most faith organizations. What troubles me is that our government is now in the business of defining and judging faith so it can fund faith.

Not only is that not the role of government...cough...but this bitch questions the wisdom of asking the same motherfuckers who can't find their ass with both hands to judge the worthiness of anything much less a full of faith program in search of my taxed and then seized money.

Blink.

I can't be the only person to see that conditions are ripe for a hustle. And...well...I hate to go there, but...ummm...faith-based hustles for profit are as old as religion.

The fact is that it is hard as hell to attach real outcomes to some of these faith based initiatives. And the problem is that this bitch would like to see some motherfucking outcomes for the billions...BILLIONS...of dollars poured into the federal funding of faith.

The Federally Faithful are blessed (wink) to have proven programs like St. Patrick Center to fund. St. Pats gets funding and the Federally Faithful become positive by association.

But beyond the proven programs are the who the fuck are these people organizations and the okay but does that shit really work programs.

I see funding opportunity after funding opportunity for faith based organizations to take over the work that community organizations used to do.

Or to convert...to what exactly?

Ouch...there goes my afro again (wince)!

Anyhoo, it is clear that the Federally Faithful are making a statement that faith is where the money is. The hustle can't be far behind. Groups like The Heritage Foundation have already put together suggestions on how to redefine what a positive faith based outcome is.

Come now...obviously one can not determine faith based success the same way one would determine program-based success.

Blink.

"Awww, come on Shark-fu." sayeth The 5 to 4 Supremes "Have a little faith!"

Is that faith in God or in government?

Mayhap the desired outcome is that the two become one...

5 comments:

proudprogressive said...

I hardily deeply, AND fully with all the points you made Shark - Fu. On all levels.

This IS yet another, a major wrong turn for this country. Big Time. And the Supreme idjits just made sure we stay OFF course.

I happen to be a medically retired social worker, who paid for my degree, had to have license, a code of ethics to be a certified a trained professional.

This Masters degree, was an investment for ME and MY clients. All people who seek services in health care settings both psychiatric and medical, deserve a qualified providers. Especially when the programs recieve Government money. OUR tax dollars.

We the people have NO quality control with faith based iniatives programs.

It undermines service standards, as you say the "outcomes" and also dammit, the worth in the market place dammit of the degrees one might obtain. This has a ripple effect too. Keeping wages lower for the lesser trained or psuedo clinicians. Its insidious.

Who needs a degree and all ,when the only qualification needed is to "be a believer" ?. And saleries forget about it. Quality of care and service delivery..forget about that too. The whole thing as you say is a giant scam.


Hell, people can believe what ever the heck they want BUT keep it out of our PUBLIC POLICY and do NOT fund it with public monies...oh lordy i got myself all worked up !

Another pithy great post women.

Thank you ! Thank you !

Maya's Granny said...

I was appalled but not surprised by that verdict. Before Bush, there were religious groups who had government grants, the difference was they had to follow the same rules as any other organization. Now, many of them don't.

BarefootCajun said...

Both Thomas Jefferson and James Madison were strong supporters of a definite separation of church and state but for different reasons. Jefferson believed to mix the two would corrupt government and Madison believed it would corrupt church. I bet they're both rolling over in their graves right now seeing their fears have come to pass.

Clio Bluestocking said...

If we MUST live in a theocracy, then erhaps it is time to seek some of that federal funding for the Church of Bitchitude? Because THAT faith-based organization might do some actual good.

I'm wondering if there could be some follow-the-money investigation to see where some of this funding goes, and who might be connected with the membership of these "faith-based" organizations, and which of these "faith-based" organizations might have donated significant portions of their coffers to who, and so forth.

Anonymous said...

Amen!
Shark-Fu: I have tagged you for a meme, "things you don't know about me yet." Take a look on my blog.

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