Still Running Off at the Keyboard

Extremists at the grandiosely named Americans United for Separation of Church and State are at it again. The group, best known for its efforts to drive religion from the public square, now wants to make sure no faith-based organizations can be reimbursed for rescuing and caring for thousands of victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has announced plans to allow some faith-based groups to recoup some of the money they've spent feeding, clothing, housing and counseling more than half a million people stranded in the worst national disaster this country has ever faced.

FEMA officials have said religious organizations can only be reimbursed if they operated shelters or undertook other emergency activities at the request of state and local officials in the affected states, but that's not enough to satisfy the rigid secularists. "What really frosts me about all this," the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, complained to The Washington Post, "is, here is an administration that didn't do its job and now is trying to dig itself out by making right-wing groups happy." He might have been more honest had he admitted that what really angers the anti-religion Left is how much more effective private and religious groups are in getting things done than Big Government ever can be.

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