This really is funny. The Heritage types can’t really press him too hard because they’ll risk tipping their hand and show how that they’ve been pandering and manipulating these idiots for years. Hypocrisy of hypocrisies, they’ll charge him with the very things of which they’re guilty. Hilarious.

If anyone wonders why our country is so fucked-up now, just examine how we choose our Presidents. Pitiful.

this “loss leader” theory of yours describes more of an unintended extra benefit that churches receive from their charity work, not their actual driving motivation.

However, what you said here is significantly overstated:

Given that a primary claim of most religions is that they have a better idea of living than your average nonbeliever, I find it laughable that their single strongest evidence of that…good works… is underwritten by atheists like me in a form of a forced tithe.

According to Wikipedia “in 2005 more than $2.2 billion in competitive social service grants were awarded to faith-based organizations”. But surely this is a drop in the bucket compared to the total amount of charitable giving and work being done by religious people. According to this site, Americans gave over $260 billion to charity in that same year. Even if you subtract what was given to directly fund churches themselves (the site says $93 billion was given to religious organizations, though it doesn’t specify how much of that the organizations themselves used for other charitable work), and subtract the percentage of that $260 billion (let’s say 10%) which was given by non-religious people, that still leaves around $140 billion given by religious people to charity. Thus, in terms of pure numbers alone, to imply that the bulk of their good works are actually being underwritten by atheists in the form of government grants is rather overstating the case.

Since their goals are not just self-serving, that they are to advance the faith, no doubt the “good” christians will turn a blind eye to the behavior, or downplay the violations because they’d look at teh violators and think “their hearts were in the right place”.

Philly’s comment reminded me of all those no-bid contracts. I can imagine someone from Blackwater or Haliburton saying the same thing.

Is anyone surprised that some people don’t really give a flying flip about [...] compliance with rules for eligibility for funds. They want what they want, and they don’t much care how they get it. Let’s hope that the rules are scrupulously enforced and these types are weeded out.

Nope, nobody is surprised at all.