Vox Nova has a post called The House That Neuhaus Built which I think is sadly counterproductive.
Despite the poster viewpoint Neuhaus is not the problem nor was he the main reason many Catholics are in a outrage.
I have posted on this a good bit. I urged a common sense approach here last week at Should Catholics Boycott This Weekend's Campaign for Human Development Collection?
The concerns are not just ACORN, that despite the spin there, was not some McCain fabrication. The problem is other groups that might be funded as well.
Catholics involved in Social Justice Work need to be the ones holding peoples feet to the fire that money is well spent. Also by doing that we make people more comfortable in contributing to the collection and thus help the people that collection helps.
Again I was hesitant about a full boycott for the reasons I gave. But there are concerns that need to be addressed. Concerns that I am afraid will go away after the heat of the elcection cycle is raised.
I am not naive and realize that there are some partisan agendas on both sides of this issue. Still I think there are valid concerns being raised as we saw here in this article The Chickens Have Come Home To Roost: Obama, ACORN, and the Catholic Campaign for Human Development by Stephanie Block
It also points out here what I call a Non Acorn Concern:
While he was in Chicago Obama was trained by the top Alinskyian organizers. One mentor was the ex-Jesuit, Greg Galuzzo, lead organizer for Gamaliel. The Developing Communities Project operated under the Gamaliel Foundation, a network of Alinskyian organizations that receive 4-5% of all Catholic Campaign for Human Development grants each year.
The Developing Communities Project, which hired Obama as lead organizer, was an offshoot of Jerry Kellman’s Calumet Community Religious Conference. Kellman, another of Obama’s mentors, was himself trained by Alinsky. The network of community organizations Alinsky founded, the Industrial Areas Foundation, receives about 16% of all Catholic Campaign for Human Development grants annually.
First let me suggest that right off this smells. 16 percent going to one foundation. 4 to 5 percent go to another organization. The first thought that came to my mind is who is this ex priest and who is his buddy in the Bishops Office.
The politics of these groups makes this messy of course. I think the people that are raising the arlarm are a tad too free with throwing the word marsit around. But still I think there are some valid concerns.
That being said I hope all people call their Dicoese office to raise concerns they might have a to find out where there money is going. I suspect a better and more vibrant collection that helps the poor and those in need will result.
The Weekly Standard hit on this too at From Little ACORNs, Big Scandals Grow . THe following is a problem:
One area of potential impropriety detailed in Strom's story is the relationship between Project Vote, registered as a tax-exempt charity with the Internal Revenue Service since 1994 and thus barred from engaging in partisan political activities, and ACORN itself, a membership organization incorporated under Louisiana law that is nonprofit but not tax-exempt and is thus free to be as partisan as it wants. ACORN's political action committee, for example, endorsed Obama in February, and the Obama campaign in turn paid an ACORN consulting affiliate, Citizens Services Inc., more than $832,000 for its work in helping Obama beat Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries.
ACORN has a contract with Project Vote to conduct voter-registration drives using ACORN employees, who initially claimed to have signed up 1.3 million new voters at a cost of $16 million, then lowered that figure to around 450,000 (according to an October 23 New York Times story) after eliminating fraudulent registrations, duplicates, and incomplete forms. The internal report, by Washington lawyer Elizabeth Kingsley, pointed out that until very recently, Project Vote's executive director, Zach Pollett, was also ACORN's political director. (Pollett resigned from Project Vote in July but continues to work for the charity as a consultant via another ACORN affiliate.) Furthermore, the report noted, Project Vote has had only one independent director (who served only briefly) throughout its entire tax-exempt history. The rest of the board has consisted entirely of ACORN staffers plus two dues-paying ACORN members. Some of them told Strom they had no idea they were on the Project Vote board, which, like the boards of many ACORN affiliates, met seldom, if ever, and failed to keep minutes.
The potential for abuse in an interlocking arrangement governed top-down from New Orleans is as obvious as a thicket of "Change" signs at an Obama rally. ACORN's using Project Vote to trawl for voters for ACORN-backed candidates--such as, um, Barack Obama--would be a clear violation of the IRS's ban on partisan activity by a charity, as Kingsley noted in her report. Strom pointed out that ACORN is already facing demands for back taxes from the IRS and "various state tax authorities.
The problem and concern I have is that these organizations where everyone seems to know each other is if this happening elsewhere and is similar activity happening with Catholic Collection money. Those concerns have not been addressed to m satisfaction.
Also see Obama's Long-term Relationship with ACORN and Alinskyism Show Church Membership a Political Means to an End
The Washington Post had a story that touches on similar themes at For Clinton and Obama, a Common Ideological Touchstone
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