Catholics Funding ACORN?

NEWS & COMMENTARY
Catholics Funding ACORN?
What would Jesus do?


BeaufortObserver

November 22, 2009
Come Sunday morning, Catholics across the country will be asked to donate to the CCHD, the Catholic Campaign for Human Development. Millions of devout Catholics, believing they are doing good, will stuff contribution envelopes with cash and checks to aid the poor.

Recently, however, some of the groups who receive funds from the CCHD have come under scrutiny. Last spring, Catholics were shocked to learn that ACORN had received some $7.1 million dollars from the CCHP in the last ten years; in 2008, the radical group claimed $1.13 million. Funding for ACORN was suspended when, according to Richard Viguerie , Bishops in charge of the Campaign had a problem "with ACORN's poor 'accounting' practices, rather than with the goals and tactics of a group that blurs the distinction between a radical political organization and a Mafia-style racket."

A large number of the organizations receiving funds from the CCHD this year are followers of Saul Alinsky, who, himself an atheist, dedicated his book "A Practical Primer for Realistic Radicals" to "the first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom — Lucifer."

Alinsky was the father of all community organizers. His legacy, the Industrial Areas Foundation funds small local groups that operate within or through local churches, calling themselves non-partisan but pursuing a leftist agenda such as abortion rights, gay marriage or outright Marxism.

There are at least three such groups affiliated with the IAF in North Carolina-
CHANGE- Communities Helping All Neighbors Gain Empowerment operating out of the Green St. Methodist Church in Winston Salem.

Durham CAN

- Durham Congregations, Associations and Neighborhoods.

- H.E.L.P. Helping Empower Local People, operating out of the Holy Covenant United Church of Christ in Charlotte. Interestingly, HELP is listed on the church's website as a ministry.

This year, the CCHD awarded $35,000 to Triangle CAN, a partner of Durham CAN and Justice United, two more groups that squat under the Alinsky/IAF umbrella.

Also in line to receive funds from the CCHD are such groups as the Chicago Workers Collaborative –

"A world free of exploitation--socialism --is not only possible but worth fighting for. The ISO stands in the tradition of revolutionary socialists Karl Marx, V.I. Lenin and Leon Trotsky in the belief that workers themselves--the vast majority of the population--are the only force that can lead the fight to win a socialist society. Socialism can't be brought about from above, but has to be won by workers themselves."

The Women's Community Revitalization Project was scheduled to receive $30,000 from the CCHP but, as of this week, it, too, is under review.. According to " For the Record - The Truth about CCHD Funding , CCHD and The Diocese of Philadelphia are reviewing this organization.

Not to worry though because, this year, they received funding from Women's Way's Community Women's Fund . "WOMEN'S WAY prefers to fund organizations that engage in both advocacy and direct services in order to address immediate needs while working to make systemic change."

"Women's Way's is not interested in funding:

- Organizations that consider themselves to be pro-life

- Organizations and projects that do not support a woman's full range of reproductive choices

-Organizations and projects promoting abstinence-only sex education

-Organizations and projects opposing same sex relationships or marriage."

The WCRP plays both side of the coin; having previously received funds from hard-working, good-hearted Catholics - the majority of which strongly oppose abortion - it also solicits for funds from groups that fully support "a woman's full range of reproductive choices."

After all, money is money, no matter which side of the political fence it comes from.
'Social justice.' 'Social development.' 'Community organizing.' Lobbying politicians who support the very things that devout Catholics –as well as Protestants and Jews - abhor. Abortion on demand. Gay marriage. A far-left agenda completely at odds with the religious beliefs of the majority of Americans today.

Marx. Lenin. Trotsky. Not a Jesus to be found.

What's wrong with this picture? How can it be that churches, temples and even mosques are entertaining the very people who state openly that their goal is power - power gained through manipulating the poor?

Thousands of churches operate or support soup kitchens and shelters for the homeless in their community. In those settings, almost always a prayer is offered before a meal and, in some cases, a Bible reading and perhaps even an opportunity to worship. We consider that to be charity to one's fellow man as our Lord showed us in Matthew 25 –

"Whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers, that you do unto me."

However, nowhere in God's Word do we find a commandment to use God's ten per cent to lobby Congress to pass a National Health Care Plan that allows abortion on demand. No Old Testament prophet, no New Testament disciple, not even Christ, himself, commanded us to allow the Church – the building and the people- to be used for advancing a far-left political agenda.

One of young Jesus' first acts was to throw the money changers out of the Temple. Sadly, they found their way back in.