Faith Based Initiatives

When President Bush instituted the faith based initiatives and set up a special office in the White House specifically for that purpose, there was a lot of hope about what it could accomplish. ABC News had an interview with one of the first people working in that office. His last line in the aired interview really summed things up. He was describing why the initiative hasn't accomplished what was hoped and he said this:
"The Democrats are tone deaf to issues of faith and the Republicans are indifferent to the needs of the poor." Obviously he was speaking in broad terms, but let's face it, it's a very accurate statement. That is why gov't funding for helping the poor has been given to non-religious organizations for so long. Even the faith-based groups that have gotten gov't funding have done it by setting up a separate organization that accomplishes "non-religious" work. Bush has done more to spur the discussion than anyone in the last 30 years, IMHO. Let's pray that it goes far beyond discussion into an actual implementation.