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Lutheran teams in Wisconsin are defending their data of service after coming beneath assault on social media by Elon Musk, the tech mogul tapped by President Donald Trump to root out waste and inefficiency within the federal authorities.
Over the weekend, former nationwide safety advisor Michael Flynn posted on X, the social media platform Musk owns, accusing Lutheran organizations who obtain federal grants of committing “cash laundering.”
Musk responded that his crew on the Division of Authorities Effectivity, generally known as DOGE, is “quickly shutting down these unlawful funds.”
Federal grants totaling billions of {dollars} annually go to nonprofits to supply a variety of group providers that states don’t present themselves, comparable to housing or meals help.
Flynn’s publish included screenshots of some Lutheran teams that obtain federal funds. Nevertheless it’s unclear how Flynn recognized which Lutheran teams to call in his publish, or how Musk decided these funds to be unlawful.
The 2 Wisconsin teams included by title in Flynn’s publish are Wisconsin Lutheran Youngster and Household Providers (WLCFS), a Christian psychological well being care supplier in Germantown, and the Gundersen Lutheran Medical Basis in La Crosse, a nonprofit well being clinic that not has any affiliation with the Lutheran Church.
A spokesperson for Christian Household Providers, which oversees WLCFS, mentioned the group understands its authorities funding to nonetheless be in place.
“We’ve got been following the information with curiosity as a result of we all know that any funding we obtain – whether or not from public or personal sources – is a privilege and will finish at any time,” the spokesperson mentioned.
In a press release, Gundersen’s mum or dad group, Emplify Well being, mentioned the group works with officers of all events.
“Any public funding we obtain is thru present public applications, authorized by way of the legislative course of, and is used to enhance entry to healthcare for our sufferers,” the assertion reads.
‘I believe he bought this one flawed’
Different Wisconsin-based Lutheran service teams that obtained federal support lately weren’t included in Flynn’s publish. That features Lutheran Social Providers of Wisconsin and Higher Michigan.
“I truly responded to Musk,” mentioned Héctor Colón, that group’s president.
Colón mentioned he’s all in favour of Musk’s profession trajectory, and mentioned curbing wasteful authorities spending would assist communities that want authorities sources.
“However I advised him, I believe he’s bought this one flawed,” he added.
Colón mentioned his group has operated for 143 years and serves about 30,000 folks per 12 months, offering youth improvement, psychological well being and substance use providers, housing coordination and different providers.
The group has additionally helped resettle about 11,000 refugees during the last 50 years — one other authorities mission that’s largely outsourced to nonprofit teams. That work has additionally been focused beneath the Trump administration, and funding for Colón’s group’s refugee work has been suspended since final month, beneath a cease work order issued to all American resettlement teams.
“Not solely is it the humanitarian factor to do for these people, however there’s financial advantages as effectively,” Colón mentioned. “Proper now, there’s an enormous scarcity of employees. And these people come right here, they find yourself loving America, and clearly are on a path to citizenship and shopping for properties and having jobs and contributing to the broader financial system.”
Since his temporary stint in Trump’s first administration, Flynn has grow to be a figurehead for the QAnon conspiracy motion. In different social media posts, he criticized cash that goes to Catholic charity teams.
Flynn is tied to Christian nationalist teams that usually see mainline Protestant teams as anti-Christian, in keeping with Julie Ingersoll, an skilled in American faith and politics on the College of North Florida. However many faith-based teams tackle governmental priorities or tasks, she added.
“A part of our entire system — by which we give tax benefits and all to non secular organizations — a part of the justification for that’s the charitable work that they do,” she mentioned. “(The federal government) can’t insist that {that a} group that desires to get funding for some charitable work be a secular group. That’s been thought of by the courts to be discrimination in opposition to non secular viewpoints.”
Certainly, the majority of governmental refugee resettlement work is finished by faith-based teams, primarily these with Protestant, Catholic and Jewish origins. Since 1980, that work has been standardized beneath the Refugee Act. Refugees have been granted authorized standing to be in the US. Neighborhood-based teams do the work of getting them arrange with housing and jobs, practice them about learn how to arrange utilities and financial institution accounts, and get their youngsters into college.
“They’re doing work that the federal authorities isn’t doing and may’t do, and so they see it as a part of their Christian mission to do good on this planet,” mentioned Ingersoll.
This story was initially revealed by WPR.
