The Secular Policy Institute has just released a major report about abuse in America’s faith-based initiative system. Abuse in America’s Faith-Based Initiative System: A Report by the Secular Policy Institute is a comprehensive report providing strong evidence that FBOs discriminate, proselytize, and provide false information that contradicts scientific facts, all while receiving government funding with lax oversight.
Faith-based organizations are often trumpeted with the assertion that they are morally superior, have more caring staff, and are better at addressing any issues that individuals may have. However, there is no evidence for this claim. Research indicates that FBOs do not perform these tasks any better than secular organizations. Catholic schools, for example, are lauded as providing superior moral instruction, better discipline, and producing students who score higher on standardized tests. However, when controlling for poverty, disability, and not being a native English-speaker ÔÇö variables that are more common in public schools ÔÇö Catholic schools were found to not excel in said areas. Moreover, many religious schools ÔÇö Catholic and otherwise ÔÇö teach false information in order to fit a faith-based agenda. Such ÔÇ£factsÔÇØ include that the universe is only 6,000 years old, Adam and Eve existed, and that intelligent design is supported by science.
Outside the school system, the report covers abuse with all other services that FBOs provide, highlighting problems with adoption agencies, AIDS services, Crisis Pregnancy Centers, and drug treatment facilities. The whistleblowing report is also a call to action for further investigation into faith-based organizations benefiting from the system.
A great deal of damning information about other faith-based organizations is also revealed in this report. Crisis Pregnancy Centers tell pregnant women that abortion causes breast cancer. FBOs set up to help illegal immigrants do not provide emergency contraception to women who have been raped, let alone refer these women to family planning services. Sex education for teenagers continues to have an abstinence-only bias. Faith-based adoption agencies are allowed to refuse adoption services to same-sex couples.
Check out this startling new report to learn more!