Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
That's a pretty nice scam. I'd like to get in on something like that. Maybe a Greenhouses For The Homeless program, where urban outdoorsman can grow their own tomatos or something. Should be able to get that fired up with a 14 million dollar grant. It's for The Chillren.
An Environmental Justice Small Grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been awarded to the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Boca Raton, Fla. for their project titled: Replicable and Scalable Community Climate Resilience Building in Two Communities in Palm Beach County, Florida.
... The Unitarian Universalist Fellowship will use the grant money to create a Resilience Adaptation Community Toolkit (ReACT), and use it in community led neighborhood canvassing and at community meetings to provide education and training to reduce public health risks associated with increasingly severe storms and sea level rise associated with climate change in South Delray Beach, Fla. and the Pearl City area of Boca Raton, Fla.
Really?? Training on public risks of severe storms in Florida??
So who is this group? The are described as a liberal religious community. My guess is that they are a part of the Unitarian Universalist Association which is a Black Lives Matter supporter... which means they probably have BLM meetings there. I would almost say from looking the website that this group is a religious outpost that carries out what the administration needs on the ground.
So let's just say they are friendly to the administration, and get perks and benefits that are not allowed to other "religious" 501c3 institutions.
The Constitution doesn`t mention a separation of church and state but it does prohibit the establishment of a state religion.
Funding a particular religious organization clearly shows a connection between the state and that organization that the Constitution prohibits.
Of course the administration could counter that Climate Change is itself a religion and that the state has been funding the climate change church for decades with no one arguing the Constitutionality of their actions.
All that fall under this tax status get the same tax breaks......education, scientific, etc.
I think the answer to this is to tighten up on the definition of 501(c)3. Too many of them are thinly disguised lobbying groups (not saying this is true of the UU group in the OP.)
If a group does meet a tightened definition for "public interest group", then I see nothing wrong with them competing for government grants.
My beef with the faith-based initiatives programs has little to do with their 501(c)3 status, and everything to do with government explicitly endorsing a particular faith-based approach to anything, whether that religion is christianity, islam, or wicca.
If a faith-based group is also doing public interest work in a secular fashion - for instance, feeding hungry people - then I'm good with them competing for grants along with non-faith-based groups. But there should be no tax-payer funded program specifically offering grants to faith-based groups.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
