DOJ Defunds Youth Programs that Reference God
FOX News
The Department of Justice has summarily removed federal funding from two Louisiana youth programs because a local official refused to sign a pledge stating he would require the programs to ban mentions of God.
Julian Whittington, the sheriff of Bossier Parish, LA, told Fox News that Obama’s Justice Office of Civil Rights de-funded the Young Marines chapter and another youth program over mentions of religion. In the case of the Young Marine program, chartered in 1965, the funding was cut off because the group features an oath that mentions “God.” In the other case, it was because a program for at-risk youth featured a voluntary, student-led prayer session as one of its activities.
Sheriff Whittington says that the DOJ withdrew a combined $30,000 from the programs because the groups refused to remove God from their activities. The sheriff said this was evidence of the government’s “aggression and infringement of our religious freedoms.”
Whittington told Fox, “We were informed that these are unacceptable, inherently religious activities and the Department of Justice would not be able to fund the programs if it continued. They wanted a letter from me stating that I would no longer have voluntary prayer and I would also have to remove ‘God’ from the Young Marine’s oath.”
From this day forward, I sincerely promise, I will set an example for all other youth to follow and I shall never do anything that would bring disgrace or dishonor upon God, my Country and its flag, my parents, myself or the Young Marines. These I will honor and respect in a manner that will reflect credit upon them and myself. Semper Fidelis
Both the U.S. Army enlistment oath and its commissioning oath end with “so help me God.”
As to the at-risk youth program, Whittington said,”We’re not promoting any specific religion, this is just voluntary prayer, mention of God, how offensive and bad can that be?”
In response to the DOJ’s message insisting that he sign the anti-God pledge, Sheriff Whittington sent a letter of his own to LA Governor Bobby Jindal.
“As a Christian, Sheriff and American citizen, I am writing to express my frustration and concern over the persistent aggression and infringement of our religious freedoms which have been imposed upon the law enforcement grant programs, specifically related to the Louisiana Commission on Law Enforcement,” wrote the Sheriff.
In cutting off the funding, the DOJ claimed it was a violation of Church and State rules for the government to fund any group that mentions God.
Fox’s Todd Starnes says that, “Both youth programs have been hailed as a successful way to reach at-risk young people. Since 2002 more than 1,000 young people have graduated from the program, directed by a Bossier Parish deputy who is a former U.S. Marine.”
Like Sheriff Whittington, Rep. John Fleming (R-LA) was troubled by the DOJ’s actions.
“There is a very wide effort coming out of the administration that seeks to stamp out freedom of expressions – particularly religion and especially freedom of Christian expression,” Fleming said. “They are willing to throw the youth overboard and remove the funding just in the name of making this an atheist, agnostic, secular organization.”
“They (DOJ) don’t want anything to have any sort of religious support – even down to prayer,” Fleming said. “It’s sad and it’s inconsistent with the intentions of the framers of the Constitution.”
Sheriff Whittington is not taking this lying down. “When something is not right and you know it’s not right and you keep bowing down, nothing is ever going to change,” he said.
Wild Thing’s comment.…………
Obama doing all he can to send our country straight to hell.
There’s a reason for these attacks upon God and Christianity. There’s a reason that lawyers in black robes can’t understand what the Constitution means when it says: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”. There’s a reason common decent men and women can understand it buy our present day leaders can’t. John Adams, one of the authors of the Constitution tells us why this is.
Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. So great is my veneration of the Bible that the earlier my children begin to read it, the more confident will be my hope that they will prove useful citizens of their country and respectful members of society…John Adams
The Constitution was made for a moral and religious people. Not for the moral degenerates inhabiting the White House, Congress, and SCOTUS. Most certainly not for the moral degenerates who elected them.
A return to faith and to The Constitution are the only way to save America. That will require a turnover or elimination of half of the massive and continuously growing federal govt.
All they have to do to get the funding back is replace GOD with islam, allah or koran, that will do the trick.