Congresswoman Maxine Waters believes that President George W. Bush's faith-based and community initiatives are driving a wedge through the black community.
Wednesday night, Waters (D-Calif.) addressed a crowd of Penn students and community members on the divisive issue of faith-based initiatives.
According to Waters, black ministers have accepted government funding for church-based social service programs as the answer to the social problems of black communities, despite the inadequacy of such funding.
"The strange thing about it is they are cutting [funding from] all of these programs in the 2006 budget," Waters said.
Waters added that while church-based social programs can help communities, inadequate funding forces religious programs to compete with other religious and non-religious charities, as well as with much-needed housing and educational programs.
Noting that many cities in dire need of social service funding have Democratic mayors, Waters suggested that the underfunding of social programs in general may be a political ploy to blame the Democratic party for the social problems that plague urban environments.
"There's a method to [Bush's] madness," she said. "In the black community, our roots are so deep in religion that to have religion turned against us is just offensive."
Waters used her claims about inadequacy of funding to launch into an attack on Social Security privatization and the entire Republican agenda.
In particular, she said that the president's education bill -- known as the No Child Left Behind Act -- sets standards for testing and achievement that, while laudable, cannot be met with current levels of funding each year.
"Leave no child behind ... is laughable," she said. "What they would like to do is drive public schools into the ground."
Wharton sophomore Brandon Celestin agreed with Waters' assessment of faith-based initiatives.
"Black ministers have taken on the president's agenda in order to [obtain funds] they believe to be benefiting their churches," Celestin said.
The lecture was sponsored by the Center for Africana Studies.
