Amy Sullivan in the Washington Monthly reviews the president`s promises and record on faith-based programs.

John Dilulio, the first director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, quit the job after George Bush failed to really support the program in congress, saying: "what you've got is everything, and I mean everything, being run by the political arm." This has been the pattern of all Republican presidents in the last decades; they want the votes of the religious right but they don't really deliver. The millions of citizens who identify themselves as Christian conservatives are used and abused for political advantage.

I wonder what has to happen for these folks to realize they are being so maliciously manipulated. They vote for a man who not only doesn't do what he says for them but he also ends up hurting a whole lot of other people, such as those in need of social and employment services around the country.

The president's record on faith-based programs has been reviewed in an article by Amy Sullivan in the Washington Monthly, October, 2004, issue. She says that "after four years, the president's faith-based policies have proven to be neither compassionate nor conservative." Though Bush claims that faith-based programs show better results than secular programs he "forgot to require evaluation of organizations that receive government grants," for example. So the president's views are based on faith and he seems uninterested to know whether his beliefs are true. Sullivan reports other research which does not support the president's beliefs.

Most seriously, Bush failed to really support his idea to broaden the charitable tax deduction which could have added $80 billion to the charitable giving of people in the country. But his tax cuts have reduced the amount of charitable giving. Along with other cuts in social services the Bush record is thus simply to preach faith but reduce funds for programs for people who need them, whether faith-based or not.

Any person of faith with his or eyes open should work energetically for the defeat of George Bush in the upcoming election.