I know I'm too much the stickler about church/state boundaries stuff, so can someone else tell me

[Critters2]

if this e-mail that I got from a local church seems odd, or unclear, or something? Here's the pertinent portion:

"A representative from FEMA who is also connected with United Methodist Committee on Relief wants to meet with representatives from the churches in the community to set up a relief agency coordinating the relief agencies of all the churches. UMCOR will train and pay for case workers to help with the second stage of the flood relief. There is a meeting Wed at the United Way office. I need to get this information out to the churches."

I'll go to this meeting, but how can a person be connected with the federal government AND a church? What does connected mean--employed by both? A federal employee who belongs to the UMC? Something else? Shouldn't other churches' relief organizations be involved in such an effort, if the UMC is? Should I invite someone from UCC Disaster Ministries to attend?

Seriesly. Wth?

[kwassa]

1. Connected does not mean employed.

Clearly, the FEMA rep is a federal employee. Federal and private charitable agencies collaborate all the time on various social programs. At one point in my life I went from working for Los Angeles County to working for Catholic Charities on different aspects of the same refugee relief program. All that "connected" probably means is that they have meetings together and coordinate programs, rather than overlapping or redundant functions.

[TreasonousBastard]

2. I can't see a problem with this...

maybe this guy is a Methodist who has been volunteering his time there. If so, his volunteer work there shouldn't be an issue unless it interferes with his job. Lots of gummint employees go to church and volunteer their time.

In this case, it seems everything is fitting right into place. There's nothing saying a Federal agency can't work with church relief groups just like there's nothing saying it can't work with the Red Cross.

As long as FEMA actually coordinates and doesn't try to run the church groups, this should help to avoid a lot of duplication of effort and lousy communication.

Sure, what could it hurt for UCC Disaster Ministries to hear what they have to say?

[RevCheesehead]

3. That sounds kind of odd.

UMNCOR does all its disaster relief work with CWS (Church World Service). If this person's on UMCOR, they should know this.