Faith based initiatives and why I'm weary of the wording

I was reading up on an organization I was unfamiliar with and stumbled upon the term "faith-based" for what feels like the thousandth time in the last 6 months. Like every other time I read this term I became instantly weary and that seems odd since I consider myself to be a "person of faith." Maybe it is my Bible Belt upbringing, but when I hear that term I associate it with Christianity which isn't entirely fair to Christians since there are Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist,Jewish, and other faith based programs. Al-Queda describe their actions as "faith based" but they are hardly representative of the majority of Muslims, just like the "faith based" actions of Christian terrorists aren't representative of Christ. Christ never advocated shooting abortion doctors, blowing up gay clubs, or any other terrorist act but every time one of these folks gets caught they claim to be acting on their faith in God/Allah/Jehovah/Yahweh/etc. Obviously not all faith based programs are of this extreme variety but it leaves me wondering what "faith based" actually means and if it is really a useful term at all. To apply this to myself and the spiritual tradition I practice: The Buddha taught love, compassion, honesty, peace, selflessness, generosity, forgiveness, patience, integrity, wisdom, etc. So to be a person of faith should really mean to be a person of principle because these are universal principles that are found in all of the major (and most minor) spiritual traditions. The Buddha claimed no monopoly on these principles, neither did Jesus or the Prophet Mohammad or Brahma/Vishnu/Shiva/etc. So my faith in the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha should inspire me to act in a manner in accordance with the principles Buddha proscribed. My actions should be "principle based" rather than "faith based." To look at this in a slightly different light, the word faith is easily used as a standard replacement for religion. For example: Followers of the Buddhist faith/religion believe in rebirth, karma, any number of deities, and lack an independently existing creator or god. You can read that sentence with either faith or religion and it makes sense, but try it with "principle" in the same place... It doesn't work. This leads me to think that if I am calling my actions "faith based" then there is a certain likelihood that I am not overly concerned with passing on the principles advocated by the figure whom my spiritual tradition is founded on so much as passing on my religion itself. This is not to say that religion as a synonym of faith cannot work in close proximity to faith; Mother Teresa was a deeply religious woman who acted on the principles of Christ's teaching. She didn't let her religious conviction of the Holy Trinity as a multi-faceted expression of a singular God stand in the way of feeding, clothing, and nursing to health thousands of Hindu children. Her religious faith convinced her of the application of principle as her highest priority. Her actions were "principle based" rather than "faith based." Because of this Mother Teresa is regard by many Catholics and non-Catholics as a saint. Now to back track a bit and examine those more extreme versions of "faith based" action such as the Christian and Muslim Crusades. How difficult is finding a justification to kill someone if your actions are based upon the principles of peace, kindness, love, etc? Pretty difficult to create a scenario where killing is an expression of love and kindness. How difficult is killing someone if your action is based on a sense of religious superiority? A glance through the history books or turning on the news should answer that fairly quickly. To take this point back to the original idea of calling an organization that seeks to help others in need a "faith based initiative" does it a great disservice in my opinion. If the goal of the organization is the conversion of people belonging to a heathen faith then "faith based" fits. It lets the rest of the world know where you stand. When an organization is acting on principle to help those who are in need regardless of their beliefs, when those organizations act with love for the sake love, we should call it "principle based" because that is what it is.

Apologies for the lack of paragraphs to space this out a bit, but as I wrote it it felt like a continious stream of the same idea and I tried to write it accordingly. This is meant only to be critical of the term "faith based" not the organizations that use the term. There are some wonderful groups working tirelessly to improve the lives of others, who base their actions entirely on the principles advocated by Jesus, Mohammad, Buddha, etc.