State: DCF head warms to faith groups

As head of Oklahoma's department of juvenile justice, Jerry Regier advocated character education programs with ties to an evangelical minister to help both his employees and the juvenile offenders he supervised.

Among the minister's beliefs: obedience to bosses, politicians and husbands, whose roles are set by God.

Regier, Florida's new child welfare chief, once told a U.S. Senate subcommittee on children and families that "the government must overcome its baseless fear of the mythical 'wall of separation' and allow, even encourage, churches to partner with schools and service agencies to provide much needed time and assistance."

Now he has arrived to take over Florida's troubled Department of Children and Families. While Regier hasn't committed to any course of action, he says faith-based organizations should play a larger role and "every agency could benefit" from a character development program.

"Sometimes, agencies immediately dismiss the involvement of faith-based organizations because of the separation of church and state, whatever that means. I don't think they should be immediately dismissed," Regier said at a news conference Wednesday.

Last week, Gov. Jeb Bush's appointment of Regier was swept up in controversy after Regier's name appeared on a 1989 paper that advocated extreme views on spanking children and keeping women out of the workplace. Regier denied he had such views, saying he hadn't written the paper published by the Coalition on Revival, didn't agree with its conclusions and had quit the group the next year.

But Regier has supported a fundamentalist Christian minister with some similar views before.

Bill Gothard, an Illinois minister who created the nonprofit Institute of Basic Life Principles, has developed a faith-based empire that includes home schooling, character training seminars for families, military training for teenage boys and an Internet law school. The institute claimed assets of $63-million on its 2000 federal tax forms.

In his seminars, Gothard has talked of a "chain of command" that begins with the male head of the household and extends to God, and that women must submit to that authority.

A secular version of Gothard's character training, Character First!, was created by Oklahoma businessman Tom Hill, who is on the institute's board of directors. Character First!, which emphasizes character traits such as respect, responsibility and obedience, is now used in about 700 businesses and 2,000 schools. Character First! officials say they are separate from Gothard and do not hold Gothard's views, but some believe they are one and the same.

"It's simply his teachings with the Bible verses removed," said Dan Veinot, president of Midwest Christian Outreach in Illinois and author of a book about Gothard, A Matter of Basic Principles: Bill Gothard and the Christian Life. "It's a way to draw people into his other (programs)."

Florida schools are poised to implement character training in all schools beginning in 2004. Character First! is one program cited in state law as a model for the schools.

All school districts must submit character education plans to the Department of Education by the 2004-05 school year that emphasize values such as patriotism, citizenship and kindness.

In Oklahoma, Regier brought Character First! management training to the Department of Juvenile Justice. In this program, employees are recognized on their anniversaries and birthdays for certain character traits they exhibit.

He encouraged the use of several of Gothard's programs with juvenile offenders before a U.S. Senate subcommittee in 1996, including a "log cabin ministry" that places juvenile offenders in cabins in the wilderness with peers who are trained by Gothard's Advanced Training Institute.

Mike Jestes, executive director of the Oklahoma Family Policy Council and chairman of the state advisory board on juvenile justice while Regier was its head, said he recalled the implementation of the log cabin program and a mentoring and character program.

He said Regier met Gothard while working for Campus Crusade for Christ. But Jestes said it would be a mistake to connect the two.

"I would say that (Regier) would be cautious, that he's not looking for a faith-based solution in entirety," Jestes said. "He's looking for all solutions."

When Regier was Oklahoma's Health and Human Services Cabinet secretary, there was a movement to implement the Character First! program with children in Oklahoma's child welfare agency, said Jon Trzcinski, who worked for Regier at the juvenile justice department and went to the child welfare agency after leaving Regier's employ.

It is not clear if Regier played a role in the effort to bring in the program, but it failed.

"It never got into the foster homes, because we could never resolve with them the issue of obedience," Trzcinski said. "Some of these are sexually abused kids. It's a population of kids betrayed by their authorities."

David Dennis, deputy director of the Office of Juvenile Affairs after Regier left the agency, said employees liked the Character First! program a lot. But several employees were uncomfortable with the required obedience.

"I remember (Regier) saying to the group, 'Any parts of this you find offensive,personally let us know,' " Dennis said.

As a state senator, Broward County Democrat Howard Forman sponsored legislation in the 1990s to bring character education into public schools. But the former lawmaker said he does not support Gothard's character program, which he called "a very stern program, and they put an emphasis on obedience and not your relationship to humanity."

Regier said he hadn't thought about whether he'd bring Character First! to Florida's child welfare workers and foster homes. But he thinks it could be helpful.

"As I said, it's really comparable to a training program, a professional development program, a leadership program, and I think every agency could benefit from that type of thing."

-- Times researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report, which includes information from the Los Angeles Times.

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