This is an update of the post we wrote here the other day. Lutheran Children and Family Service of Eastern Pennsylvania held a public meeting to bring together churches in the Allentown area to prep them for the arrival of Syrian refugees.
The Morning Call reported on what happened next, here.
A Lutheran group that settles refugees in the Lehigh Valley got more than it bargained for at a meeting Wednesday when members of the Lehigh Valley Tea Party and other groups questioned whether some of those refugees might be terrorists.
Lutheran Children and Family Service, which oversees the refugee settlement program in the area, held an informational meeting at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in Allentown on how churches and others can help in light of the Syrian refugee crisis.
Janet Panning, program director of Lutheran Children and Family Service, told the approximately 70 people in attendance that the agency expects to resettle about 120-130 refugees in the next year, including about 50-60 Syrians in 15 families.
[….]
Representatives of about 25 churches attended to find out how they would help. But when Panning and others on her panel started taking questions, it became clear that others in the audience were more concerned with whether the Muslim refugees might be terrorists, might try to impose strict Islamic law and customs on the United States and become burdens to society.
I am not going to get into the weeds of the misinformation spouted by Ms. Panning and others. Read the whole thing and be sure to see the comments.
Two things!
Remember two things (no matter how maligned you might be at a meeting like this one): First, you are paying for this whole resettlement business and have a right to know what they are doing with your money and to your town, and secondly, the FBI has testified to Congress that the Syrian refugees cannot be thoroughly screened to assure terrorists won’t get in!
You have every right to be there and to question those promoting the colonization of your community and using your money to do it!
Lutheran Children and Family Service of Eastern Pennsylvania is rolling in YOUR bucks!
They are from Philadelphia where refugee overload means diversity is not such a beautiful thing and thus they need to be spreading their refugees out to surrounding towns and cities—Allentown is about 50 miles from Philadelphia. More here.
Some parts of their website are password protected (what are they hiding there?).
If you think this ‘church’ group is passing the plate on Sunday mornings to pay for all of this, forget it. By the way, they are a subcontractor of major federal contractor Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, here.
We had a look at the most recent Form 990 available for Ms. Panning’s organization and here is some of what we learned (p.9):
Gross receipts that year were: $14,273,796
Government grants: $13,506,480 (federal and state taxpayer dollars!)
So that comes to 95% funded by taxpayers! This is not a private non-profit group, this is essentially a quasi-government agency!
It gets worse!
They spent $8,889,752 of your money on salaries, benefits, pensions, payroll taxes and management!
Now, have a look at the salaries for this NON-PROFIT GROUP! (p. 7) Ahhhh! Doing well by doing good!
CEO: $411,357 (in compensation and related benefits)
Senior VP: $269,734
Another Senior VP: $205,456
VP of Community Services: $153,837
So, when Ms. Panning is trying to tell an audience that they aren’t paid much, that all they get is $925 per refugee from the State Department, I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt. Maybe she doesn’t know herself how many millions come from taxpayers or how huge the salaries are of her senior leadership. Next time, how about sending CEO Luanne Fisher*** out to field the questions!
From The Morning Call:
The State Department, which works with Lutheran Children and Family Service on resettlement, provides $925 per refugee to help with the effort. The rest is up to the Lutheran Service group and churches that partner with the organization.
By the way, you need to know that when groups like this one seek volunteer help and donated junk, they get to count both the time and the donations as ‘cash’ so they can tell the federal government they have a little skin in the game.
Read the whole Morning Call update here.
Another Lutheran doing well by doing good is Jodi Harpstead, here at Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota. How many more of them are out there sucking from the government teat?
p.s. If you have made contact with your Pennsylvania US Senators’ offices, please send them this post! Afterthought: Dr. Fisher makes twice what your US Senator makes, here.
*** Ms. Fisher was the CEO at the time of the filing of the 2012 Form 990 we were able to access and we can only assume she is still the CEO as of this writing. It is the staff portion of their website that is password protected.