My church's new pastor claims an attack on Bush's "Faith Based Initiatives"

I go to church pretty much every Sunday. I've been going to Highlands United Methodist Church for my whole 18 years of existence.

We recently got a new pastor.

Today her sermon was about how "our church's history is America's history". She later got around to talking about how politicians try to "bump down religion" at every chance that they get, and told us about how the government "shut down" this rehabilitation facility because it was Christian and therefore unconstitutionally receiving federal funding. She called this a "huge blow on President Bush's Faith Based Initiatives", and said that the government did not replace the program with anything that was as effective at keeping ex-inmates out of prison.

I'll give her that; it definately was a blow to Bush's Faith Based Initiatives, but why can't the rehab facitlity simply become a private establishment? The government can't fund it, or own it, but that doesn't mean that the place can't exist. Being a religious establishment, how hard would it be to get donations from church's all over the country, especially with this supposed success in keeping ex-criminals from committing more crimes after they're released? With a success story such as that, what church wouldn't want to take constant donations for that establishment?

All of a sudden the government should be there to help, as long as its a church and not just some lazy "welfare queen" who abuses the system. You can help yourself, but we can't.