Cato Daily Dispatch for December 30, 2002
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Tensions Grow on Korean PeninsulaNew York Times Decries 'Faith-Based Initiatives' Order
What Would Jesus Wear?
Tensions Grow on Korean Peninsula
In light of North Korea's decision to restart its nuclear weapons development program, South Korea is now assessing "whether communist North Korea was preparing to withdraw from the international treaty that seeks to halt the spread of nuclear weapons," the Associated Press reports.
"A statement released by North Korea suggested it would pull out of the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons - a move that would escalate the crisis over the isolated nation's decision to restart its nuclear facilities and expel International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors.
"In 1993, the North said it would withdraw from the treaty during a crisis over its suspected development of nuclear weapons. The crisis was resolved a year later with the Pyongyang regime agreeing to halt its nuclear weapons development in exchange for aid from the United States and other nations.
"North Korea said in a statement yesterday that the United States violated the 1994 deal by halting promised energy supplies."
In an op-ed in today's USA Today, Ted Galen Carpenter, vice president for foreign policy and defense studies, argues that economic sanctions and threats of military strikes will do little to persuade North Korea to renounce its nuclear ambitions.
"U.S. policymakers need to face the possibility that North Korea is determined to become a nuclear power, regardless of U.S. bribes or threats," writes Carpenter. "If that is the case, Washington must radically change its entire security policy in northeast Asia. Above all, the USA should not continue to station troops in the region, where they would be nuclear hostages to a volatile foe. Washington should not want North Korea to have a nuclear monopoly in northeast Asia. U.S. leaders should warn North Korea that, if it insists on building nuclear weapons, the USA will end its opposition to Japan and South Korea having such weapons."
New York Times Decries 'Faith-Based Initiatives' Order
"President Bush punched a dangerous hole in the wall between church and state earlier this month by signing an executive order that eases the way for religious groups to receive federal funds to run social services programs," according to an editorial in The New York Times. "The president's unilateral order, which wrongly cut Congress out of the loop, lets faith-based organizations use tax dollars to win converts and gives them a green light to discriminate in employment. It should be struck down by the courts.
"President Bush's initiative runs counter to decades of First Amendment law, which holds that government dollars cannot be used to promote religion. The White House claims money will not be used to directly support religious activities. But by financing religious people who provide social services in a way that includes religion, the program will be doing just that.
"The faith-based initiative is also unconstitutional, and fundamentally unfair, because it allows tax dollars to be used in programs that discriminate in hiring. Churches will be able to hire only Christians for jobs paid for with federal funds, and synagogues and mosques could similarly refuse to hire nonbelievers. And taxpayer-financed religious programs can, by citing their religious beliefs, refuse to hire gay men and lesbians."
In "Corrupting Charity: Why Government Should Not Fund Faith-Based Charities," Michael Tanner, director of health and welfare studies, explains that subsidizing church social services may free up money for proselytizing, thus indirectly funding religious activity.
"As they became increasingly dependent on government money, faith-based charities could find their missions shifting, their religious character lost, the very things that made them so successful destroyed," Tanner writes. "In the end, Bush's proposal may transform private charities from institutions that change people's lives to mere providers of services, little more than a government program in a clerical collar."
What Would Jesus Wear?
"At the beginning of the school year, Dixie Outfitters T-shirts were all the rage at Cherokee High School in Canton, Ga. Girls seemed partial to one featuring the Confederate battle flag in the shape of a rose. Boys often wore styles that discreetly but unmistakably displayed Dixie Outfitters' rebel emblem logo.
"But now the most popular Dixie Outfitters shirt at the school doesn't feature a flag at all, reports The Washington Post. It says: 'Jesus and the Confederate Battle Flag: Banned From Our Schools But Forever in Our Hearts.' It became an instant favorite after school officials prohibited shirts featuring the battle flag in response to complaints from two African American families who found them intimidating and offensive.
"The ban is stirring old passions about Confederate symbols and their place in Southern history in this increasingly suburban high school, 40 miles northwest of Atlanta. Similar disputes over the flag are being played out more frequently in school systems -- and courtrooms -- across the South and elsewhere, as a new generation's fashion choices raise questions about where historical pride ends and racial insult begins."
In "Don't Put Slavery in the Flag," Executive Vice President David Boaz, discussing a debate in Mississippi over whether to remove the Confederate battle flag from the state flag, writes that because the flag is an "official symbol," it should represent the state as a whole. The Mississippi flag, he argues, does not represent the values of all Mississippians.
"As long as the violence and cruelty of slavery remain a living memory to millions of Americans, symbols of slavery should not be displayed by American governments. Those who want to honor their brave ancestors who fought for Southern independence should fly the Confederate flag themselves, tend to Confederate graves and hold Southern Heritage picnics. They should not ask their fellow citizens to walk into a state capitol under a banner that proclaims the superiority of some citizens to others."
Jonathan Block, editor, jblock@cato.org
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