You Don't Gotta Have Faith

Katha Pollitt objects to Obama's proposed "President's Council for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships" (pdf) because, she says, it inordinately benefits religious groups.

It seems to me she has it nearly backward.

Obama's plan seeks to "promote partnerships between government and faith-based and other nonprofit community groups to provide services to the needy and underserved." (My emphasis.) What this means is that if some organization wants to get involved in providing essential services to the needy, that organization won't be discriminated against merely because it is religious. So while putting the "faith-based" frame around the plan is a brilliant piece of marketing, the fact is that the plan doesn't include secular groups so much as it doesn't exclude religious ones.

If we can't get rid of the evil religion often does, we might as well make use of the good it often can do.

(Via onegoodmove.)