Separation of Church and State - Unless You Want Church Money For Your Socialist Agenda

It appears that Soapbox Jill and I were both in attendance at an informational workshop in Sheboygan a bit ago that tackled the topic of how Alinsky type community organizing groups are operating across the nation in an effort to dupe churches out of their money and to use the congregations as a political lever to push their radical agenda.

There are a few larger organizations operating in this state and across the nation. Groups with links to IAF (The Industrial Areas Foundation), ACORN, the Gamaliel Foundation and etc., which spawn smaller and to all appearances, charitable organizations within a community. They do engage in good works with some of the money they receive from our churches, but in doing so they are simply acting as wolves in sheep's clothing.

For instance, the Gamaliel group of Chicago receives money from the umbrella group, WISDOM, under which a slew of smaller Biblically named groups operate. They have names like JOSHUA of Green Bay, ESTHER in Appleton, SOPHIA in Waukesha, RIC, JOB, CUSH, MICAH, AMOS and JONAH. They undoubtedly provide resources for some who need them in those communities, but that is not their true goal.
Tom Murphy in the Appleton Post describes Gamliel's true mission like this: "The organization envisions units in every metropolitan area and would break down whatever local ordinances it deemed in opposition to its socialistic goals.”

That's the point of our posts. The goals of these organizations are to promote a change in our society. Now the beauty of our form of government, is that We the People are able to change our government when it suits us. However, there is a big difference between a large group of people deciding to make a change out in the open and a small group of folks hijacking the good names, charitable contributions and intentions of a larger group to accomplish goals that are completely in opposition to what that larger group would approve, and that is what has been happening.

What these community organizing groups do, is to get the local churches to sign on to their membership, by promising to do the good works for which the church has traditionally been responsible in the community. (I won't address the morality of outsourcing good works by the churches here, although it is of some concern to me.)Then these groups use a portion of the money that is donated by the churches to hire a lobbyist who goes to the seat of government and tells our legislators that all the congregations of all these churches support the legislative agenda they are pushing. That agenda includes, but is not limited to: promoting in-state tuition and driver's licenses for illegal aliens; promoting abortion and homosexual marriage like contracts; promoting Obamacare; opposing second amendment freedoms; promoting the national popular vote movement to disenfranchise rural voters and the voters of smaller states in national elections by awarding all the electoral votes of a state to go to the winner of the popular vote regardless of how the voters in that state actually voted; allowing felons to vote, thus skewing the voting power of electoral districts by increasing the numbers of voters in large urban centers; and the list goes on and on.

This is a heinous crime against the congregations of our local churches and we need to take a close look at where our church dollars are going. If your church is giving to these organizations go to the board, or the deacons or whomever has a vote and let them know that you will boycott the collection plate until all donations to these groups are stopped. You may also ask that these groups refund any donations made to date.

The other biggies, besides the Gamaliel foundation that are hijacking people's church dollars with such disingenuousness in Wisconsin are the Industrial Areas Foundation, or IAF (includes Common Ground and Dane County United), Wisconsin Council of Churches and Wisconsin Catholic Conference.

The largest sources of income for all of these groups are as follows:

1. Church Pledges -
   http://www.joshua4justice.org/content/view/14/27/
2. Catholic Campaign for Human Development - http://www.reformcchdnow.com/ and http://www.catholicmediacoalition.org/
3. Local Community and Private Foundations - Look up non-profit tax returns at http://www2.guidestar.org/
4. Public Dollars - Where is all that stimulus money going? See the housing bill here: http://www.joshua4justice.org/images/pdf/09-1944p4.pdf Notice that this link is through the JOSHUA home site.
5. George Soros and Out of State Billionaires - Like The Open Society Institute; Search http://www.soros.org/ for Wisconsin to see where Mr. Soros' money is going in this state.; George Soros' funding of Catholic groups (see
   http://www.aim.org/aim-column/atheist-soros-funds-catholic-groups and
   http://www.aim.org/aim-column/catholic-tv-host-challenges-bishops ) It seems a bit odd for an atheist to fund a faith based organization, doesn't it?; Then there is the Gay Mafia(Time Magazine's terminology, not mine.) here http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1854884,00.html and the group " They Won't Know What Hit them (The Atlantic Magazine)
   http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2007/03/they-won-8217-t-know-what-hit-them/5619/

If you don't want to have anything to do with the socialist political agendas of these groups, which are, in my opinion, detrimental to the state of Wisconsin as well as the nation, then hold your church accountable for the money they give to others for the outsourcing of "good works". Hold them accountable at the collection plate and get on the boards that make such decisions. Don't drop out of your church, make your church accountable for the funds that they are given in the name of charity.

As for the progressives who have concocted this scheme, I don't know how many times I have heard folks like you advocating for the "separation of church and state" when the good folks whose money you are now receiving under false pretenses object to something in your socialist agenda on the basis of their Christian faith. I think that since you are such advocates of the separation of church and state, the good people of Wisconsin and the nation should let you have it.

I think you should not receive one more penny from a single church in Wisconsin or the nation and I think that you should be required to return every cent you have received under false pretenses. And congregational members of these churches, don't, whatever else you do, complacently continue to allow this misuse of your funds because you think that the wolf in sheep's clothing is really just a nice doggy. The good works that are done by these organizations are not payment enough for their theft of your good name, your reputation as Christians, and your standing before the Lord when you will have to account for their evil done with the funds over which you were given stewardship.

As Soapbox Jill was in attendance at this or a similar meeting as she has posted a wonderful write-up over at Liberty's Logic: Community Organizing Groups Dupe Wisconsin Christians There are also clips on her site of Mr. Leibham's listening session in Sheboygan.

"As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God."~ 1 Peter 4:10