Yesterday Rolling Stone's Jeff Sharlet dropped an amazing tidbit. Seems that the Faith-Based Initiative--the Bush plan to send billions of tax dollars hurtling to religious groups--was dreamed up by the geniuses at The Family, the District of Columbia's spiritual mafia and no fans of the Establishment Clause.
Which reminds me. Way back in 2002, below the radar, a bunch of God-oriented offices sprang up within the Department of Labor and other secular agencies. The idea was to grease the path of dollar bills from the U.S. government to social programs inspired by one deity or another.
So I decided to get in touch on behalf of a controversial faith--the fictitious congregation from H.P. Lovecraft's classic horror stories, about a terrifying fiend from the deep. I was just cleaning out my closet and found this:
I also received this pamphlet: "Not everyone has a burning bush..." Can you believe this is a federal government document?
"I think it’s light-hearted enough," said Brent Orrell, U.S. Department of Labor Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, around that time, "that I haven’t received any negative response to it." Har, har.
Says a friend: "I can't fucking believe that. It looks like something the Jehovah's Witnesses are handing out at the Jay Street Borough Hall subway stop."
I still can't find my other DOL mail, which was addressed to my fictitious Church of the Robot.
Below: Potential federal grant recipient Cthulhu, a.k.a. "the thing that cannot be described."