Faith-Based Folly

It started under Clinton. Then W. Bush went all in. It was to off-load humanitarian work from government employees to the private sector. Faith based and non profits contracted with government to do this work and it appeared cheaper. Now we are now seeing it might have been better to leave it with government employees. 

In Minneapolis there was a large theft. There was a contract that paid for providing meals. The meals never happened. That has increased interest and study of non profits taking over from public employees.

In jail and prison across the U.S. evangelical groups provide Chaplains. Local sheriffs say this calms down inmates and makes the sheriff's job easier. Mixed in is the widely known conclusion inmates have made that buttering up the Chaplain may increase odds of an early out. Pretending to be in the faith is the key.

The link tells of efforts by non profits in get new projects. These non profits or religious groups are not interested in making life better for down and outers because this is the group they can get paid to help. 

I've always been suspicious of the often-repeated line, "This group is just interested in its own interests. Let's give the project to this other group that really wants to help the cause." If self interest is a human motive, why will it not show up in the new group just as it did in the old? That is, if government employees tried to get better deals for themselves, why will the employees of non profits, even religious groups, not do the same? Today we seen them doing just that.