Separation of State and Church

Reminding us that "candidate Barack Obama pledged to keep government funds from faith-based groups that hire only those who share the same beliefs," this editorialist is upset that as president he "has kept in place Bush-era provisions that allow faith-based groups to discriminate in hiring" — Leap of Faith. It is meet, right, and salutary for "faith-based groups to discriminate in hiring," but the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships is another Bush era legacy that should be scrapped along with water-boarding and wire-tapping.

Rather, our model should be that of Servant of God Dorothy Day, foundress of the Catholic Worker Movement, who, citing "a principle laid down, much in line with common sense and with the original American ideal, that governments should never do what small bodies can accomplish," suggested that "the government has no right to legislate as to who can or who are to perform the Works of Mercy" and did "not apply for this 'privilege'" of "tax-exempt status" — Anarcho-Catholicism in a Nutshell.