WRONG BELIEF, NO JOB HERE

“WASHINGTON - Religious groups participating in federal job-training programs could hire employees based on their religious beliefs under a jobs bill that narrowly passed the House Wednesday.”-Associated Press

Americans must make up their minds, if they haven’t already. Do they want a country that is having its resources consolidated into the hands of a wealthy few and then leaving the shrinking middle class and habitually poor in the hands of “faith-based” organizations? Are they creating a religious welfare state, one that has concepts of knowing what is and how to be the “good” to those growing numbers of angry citizens that lack jobs and resources? Are they creating a state that is religiously chic? One that dictates, if you are not in the “fold,” you are out in the cold.

Historically government has not been the friend of people of color in the United States. We all know how the First Peoples’ no longer have any choice land or real sovereignty. (Blacks know about such historical decisions as The Three Fifths Clause, Dred Scott, Plessy and Bakke.) But most importantly they don’t have real religious freedom. The Native American Rights Fund states, "Even today, the freedom of Native Americans to practice their traditional religions continues to be questioned in the courts and discounted in federal legislation. In the past few decades, issues such as access to religious sites, the use of peyote in religious ceremonies, the process of obtaining eagle feathers for religious uses, and Native American prisoners’ access to religious articles and practitioners have all raised questions about the U.S. government’s true commitment to protecting religious freedom for all people in the U.S., including Native Americans.”

Isn’t it interesting that Black Americans are in many ways the most religious (Overwhelming Christian) people in America? Some 82 percent of blacks (versus 67 percent of whites) are church members; 82 percent of blacks (versus 55 percent of whites) say that religion is "very important in their life"; and 86 percent of blacks (versus 60 percent of whites) believe that religion "can answer all or most of today’s problems." (John J. Dilulio Director, White House Faith Based Community Programs).

On the contrary, statistics taken from the Sentencing Project show that the rate of imprisonment for black men (those who go to prison are probably the least educated, poorest, and the less likely to consistantly participate in religious rituals or european cultural values) in 1996 was 8.5 times that of white men: black men were confined in prison at a rate of 3,098 per 100,000 compared to a white rate of 370. Even more strikingly, in the past ten years the black men’s rate increased ten times the white men’s increase. (However almost all will likely admit to being a Christian before incarceration)

From my perspective, why not just cut to the chase and say if you are different then us "faith based moral people,", you can’t make it here. If you aren’t what the Christian leadership thinks is a good Christian, a "like white" Christian, a "moral" person in their eyes, then you either land in jail or probably not have you or your ancestor's religion protected or respected. Forget about finding gainful employment, after all, most non-corporate community jobs will be controlled by faith based community projects and go to the "believers" while high level corporate jobs, being highly competitive, going to those who have the “right” education and eventually, the right religious beliefs too.

I am thrown back to Nazi Germany. If you weren’t on the same page as the Nazi’s and didn't share Nazi values, you were rounded up and eventually isolated and discriminated against. As Representative Bobby Scott, D-Virginia., said, The provision would "shift the weight of the federal government from supporting the victim of discrimination to supporting some so-called right to discriminate with federal funds. That is a profound change in civil rights protection."

“If you aren’t with us, you’re against us”- George W. Bush.

I sincerely hope the Senate doesn't let this country slip any further into darkness.

http://www.dailystar.com/dailystar/news/63867.php