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October 13, 2006

Bush Administration's Betrayal of Christians

A former Bush Administration official and fervent Christian, David Kuo, who served as special assistant to the President and second in command at the Office of Faith-Based Initiatives, has come forward with the inside story about how the President's newly-created office was purely a Republican campaign tool and is exposing what the Administration really thinks of Christians. His tell-all book, "Tempting Faith," is scheduled for release October 16.

“National Christian leaders received hugs and smiles in person and then were dismissed behind their backs and described as ‘ridiculous,’ ‘out of control,’ and just plain ‘goofy,’” Kuo writes.

More seriously, Kuo alleges that then-White House political affairs director Ken Mehlman knowingly participated in a scheme to use the office, and taxpayer funds, to mount ostensibly “nonpartisan” events that were, in reality, designed with the intent of mobilizing religious voters in 20 targeted races.

In most of those races, the effort had the desire effect and Republicans won. As to the treatment of Christians, Randi Rhodes on her show yesterday played several audio clips and read from other interview material that explained how the loyalty of Christian right leaders was purchased by handing out trinkets, such as pens and pads of paper, but not by actually taking steps to address Christians' concerns. When Christian leaders would begin to express dissatisfaction, the Administration would explain to them that they understood Bush's heart and that he was moving as quickly as he could, but that change would take time. However, it was a lie intended solely to placate Christians and keep them in the Republican fold.

Kuo describes how the Bush Administration prioritized the search for any possible instances of religious discrimination that could be used to create the appearance of widespread problems that did not actually exist - for political purposes, of course. Kuo said such instances were so rare that they were not a real problem. He tells how spin and deceit allowed the Bush Administration to claim it was allocating vast amounts of new funding to help the poor when in fact the funding for these efforts was less than had been spent in the Clinton Administration. Worse, much of this money was used to advance a political agenda rather than to fulfill the purported mission of the Office.

A transcript of last night's interview with Kuo on "Countdown" can be found here. Some highlights:

[W]hen Senator Chuck Grassley tried to rewrite Mr. Bush's 1.7 trillion dollar tax cut to include six billion in tax credits for groups helping the poor — tax credits that Mr. Bush himself had publicly proposed — Kuo says Bush's assistant told Grassley to drop the charity tax credits. The White House had no interest.

The cuts Mr. Bush did want made things worse for charities. Kuo claims that the estate tax cuts discouraged charitable giving, costing charities an estimated 5 billion dollars.

The ultimate impact of Mr. Bush's tax cuts, he says, was to brutalize the very charities Mr. Bush once identified as his top priorities. After only a year, charitable donations were down dramatically, and some charities had shut down.

For any Christian who trusted this President, Kuo's book will likely be downright appalling and even disheartening. Many thought the President was very serious about his Faith-Based Initiatives program. Kuo says that is not true.

He says the Faith-Based office wasn't even set up during the 2001 transition until Mr. Bush took office and Karl Rove gave a transition volunteer less than one week to roll out the entire Faith-Based Initiative.

The volunteer asked how he should do that, without staff, without an office, or without even a plan.

According to Kuo, "Rove looked at him, took a deep breath, and said, "I don't know. Just get me a f–ing faith-based thing. Got it?"

And there's even a little tidbit about that wonderful Christian leader, Jerry Falwell. At a 9/11 memorial service at Ground Zero, Falwell didn't exactly display Christian behavior.

While others wept, Kuo says, Falwell laughed about something with another conservative leader. Spotting Barbara Bush, Falwell remarked on how "frumpy" she looked.

There's much more, and I think I will have to add Kuo's book to my reading list. But for those of you who can't wait until Monday, David Kuo himself pens a story of hope and then betrayal in his service at the Office of Faith Based Initiatives on on Beliefnet.com, where he is a contributing editor.

Many Republicans seem unable to wake up to the truth about this Administration because their core belief system is based on a partisan identity. Christians, on the other hand, have at their core a Christian identity that is deeper and stronger than any partisan affiliation. This group of voters may well be the ones who can save us from the neocons, if they can be woken up in time to be steered away from voting for the Republicans who have used and abused them for so long.

Posted by Becky at October 13, 2006 09:17 AM