President Bush’s Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives for charity may sound new and different to a lot of people. But, actually, it takes us back to the 1800s and earlier, where the only people helping the poor were the churches and missionaries.

In Ireland, during the potato famine of that century, many Catholics starved to death rather than take food from the Protestant churches. This is an example of what’s wrong with having even well-meaning religious groups be the only source of help for people in need.

The other part of this is Bush giving our federal tax dollars to churches. This also gets churches of various theological beliefs competing for cash payments from our federal taxes, people of all faiths – or none at all.

If Bush gets re-elected he will assume he has a mandate for the programs that he wants. The separation of church and state will end, and Bush will effectively be this new church-state’s head. It’ll be “Welcome to the Middle Ages, y’all.” Heaven help us.

Cheryl Lovely

Presque Isle