This comes from 365gay.com

(New York City) A priest who attempted to protect a 21 year old transwoman from four teens who were hitting and verbally harassing her was beaten in front of a shelter for gay and trans young people.

The teens were pelting Alessandra-Michelle Carver with garbage and yelling transphobic insults outside the Carmen's Place shelter in Queens when Fr Louis Braxton attempted to chase the youths away.

"One of them hit me with a garbage can," Carver told The Daily News. "Then his friends started joining in."

Braxton, who runs the shelter, was able to scare off the teens while Carver made it inside the building.  But minutes later the youths returned with metal poles, belts, and construction equipment including empty paint cans and a miter saw, and began beating Braxton.

"Father was trying to make peace with them, but then one of them hit him in the back of the head with a paint can," Carver told the Daily News. "He fell to the ground, and they kept hitting him."

Carver said she and other teens fended off the attack on the priest. Two of the residents also were injured.

 In making their escape the four ran past Transportation Authority Police officers who apprehended them.

I'd like to know more about a priest who runs a shelter for gay and trans young people.  It is like a little jolt of faith in a world filled with Barack Obama.  Nice.

Color me not surprised by this little pronouncement from Mr. Theocracy.

Reaching out to evangelical voters, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is announcing plans that would expand President Bush's program steering federal social service dollars to religious groups and - in a move sure to cause controversy - support their ability to hire and fire based on faith.

"The challenges we face today, from putting people back to work to improving our schools, from saving our planet to combating HIV/AIDS to ending genocide, are simply too big for government to solve alone," Obama was to say, according to a prepared text of his remarks obtained by The Associated Press. "We need all hands on deck."

Obama proposes to elevate the program to a "moral center" of his administration, by renaming it the Office of Community and Faith-Based Partnerships, and changing training from occasional huge conferences to empowering larger religious charities to mentor smaller ones in their communities.

Some of those hands, Senator Obama, happen to be doing a damn fine job without being faith based.  How about funding us?

Faith based institutions do not serve the entire public.  They serve their faith based constituencies.  Some folks play by the rules and don't play the conversion card.  Too many don't and we cannot afford -- we cannot PREVENT -- them from inflicting their agenda on the vulnerable people they are entrusted to serve. 

What's worse is that faith based entities are going to suck up resources previously allocated to secular organizations -- organizations already doing good work and perhaps heavily affiliated with unpopular and underserved communities.  Like ours.

This is pandering, pure and simple.  It is the #1 reason I am opposed to electing Barack Obama, but I have no choice do I?  And he seems to know it.  Damn.