Teen Challenge, Americans United pointed out, requires participants to take part in prayer, worship, Bible study and other religious activities. Program participants must sign a "Civil Rights Waiver" in which each surrenders the right to "exercis[e] the religion of my choice."

This is a prime example of a government-funded proselytization program which opponents of faith-based initiatives warned about. Since Obama plans on keeping the faith-based initiative program I hope he tightens up its operation - a lot.

Since Bush created the monumental opportunities for Churches to swindle the Federal Government, we are stuck with it until we can clean it up. It would be too disruptive for a new president to just suspend the programs, and owuld give too much ammunition to those few honest Christians who are taking or tax money and not abusing their contracts. So the least Obama can do it force them to play by the rules while the programs are brought back into come kind of control and supervision.
Bush's cynically throwing money at the Right Wing Christian organizations in exchange for their votes was concocted by that evil plotter Rove, and now it will take some time to undo it. This is just one more area in which Bush's plans were an absolute disaster.

Sounds a lot like a program handbook for a cult. Strong ideology and almost zero free time are hallmarks of cult "brainwashing."

Alex you claim the program is not effective, American's United claim it is. I don't know if you're being over critical or American's United is going overboard trying not to offend. The truth of the tale is independent evaluation. Program evaluation with honest and transparent benchmarks should be the gold standard in any federal program, but even more so in faith based efforts.

While I share your opposition to "faith based initiatives" administered with federal dollars, I fear that for the foreseeable future they are here to stay. Any efforts to reform or eliminate them should be accompanied by a demand for strict accountability.

If there were similar programs available for persons of other major religions (Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Wiccans and indigenous American religions , etc.), as well as for agnostics/atheists, even then I might perceive a "level playing field" and not get too upset about their use of government funding.

But the reality is that there are very, very few "faith-based" dollars going to non-Christian programs --- partly because they don't even bother to apply because they know they will get rejected! So, bottom line, this is a politician's mechanism for buying votes from fundamentalist Christians and using government to put other religions at a disadvantage. Maybe someday we will have a US Supreme Court that will put an end to this travesty, but I'm not holding my breath on it.

The Chicago Tribune reports that then

“state senator from Chicago's South Side, Barack Obama …arranged for a $200,000 state grant… to jump-start an urban venture capital fund for a non-profit group run by Rev. Jesse Jackson.”

The effort was a failure because of fear of investing in non-EuroAmerican projects. The Tribune says it’s an

“example of the mixed record for Obama and other officials in getting results from such programs.”

“Obama's embrace of this approach, championed by President George W. Bush, led Jackson to lash out…at his fellow Chicago Democrat…The flap erupted amid Obama's attempts to broaden his appeal by reaching out to evangelicals…a development that has disturbed some liberals such as Jackson who fear the faith-based emphasis is an excuse for curtailing government social service obligations.”

Actually, it’s worse than that. Frightened by Republican successes using bigoted christers as saps in their wedge issue campaigns, Democrats like Obama, Clinton and others embraced the Bush/Rove program to bribe pulpit pimps in exchange for endorsements and votes.

That’s exactly what Bushbrain Rove did. And it’s exactly what Obama’s doing, from the trail of revival meetings with “ex-gay’ scum like Donnie McClurkin down to last Sunday's hoe-down with bigots in deepest, palest Orange County to his frightening decision to order the platform committee to erase all mention of us.

Jackson’s not the only one really pissed off – and the list is growing every day. Even a glut of teary eyed convention speeches won’t slow the dawning awareness that Obama's a rightist pulling the Democrats even further to the right by duplicating Roves strategy. If the christers elect him they’ll own him. They owned Clinton after DOMA and they've made Bush bow and scrape every day of his presidency. Bush is going to leave office as a national disgrace because he pandered to christers. Next!