Tea at Trianon: Religious Facilities Banned From Using Infrastructure Funds

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Wednesday, November 10, 2021

Religious Facilities Banned From Using Infrastructure Funds

From Gregg Jarrett:

President Biden’s Build Back Better Act includes a provision that bans religious facilities, like churches, schools and synagogues, from using infrastructure funds to improve their facilities.

“From a portion of the quality child care amount, a State shall provide support, including through awarding facilities grants, for remodeling, renovation, or repair of a building or facility to the extent permitted under section 658F(b) of the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 9858),” the bill states. It then lists “Additional Uses” for the funds.
The bill continues, “For fiscal years 2022 through 2024, and in subsequent years with approval from the Secretary, a State may provide such facilities grants for construction, permanent improvement, or major renovation of a building or facility primarily used for providing child care services, in accordance with the following: (AA) Federal interest provisions will not apply to the renovation or rebuilding of privately-owned family child care homes under this subclause; (BB) Eligible child care providers may not use funds for buildings or facilities that are used primarily for sectarian instruction or religious worship.”

“Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., offered an amendment to strike the provision called the Religious Freedom Amendment, but it failed during the Ways and Means Committee’s markup in September,” Fox News noted.

“The congressman was disappointed that Democrats wouldn’t grant such a simple request to help our children during previous negotiations,” a spokesperson for Kelly told Fox News. “His Religious Freedom Amendment was an inclusive bill that would have given parents greater choice and allow them to pick a child care service that was best for them.” (Read more.)