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Plan to give faith groups money enters briar patch
By WAVENEY ANN MOORE © St. Petersburg Times, published April 28, 2001 TREASURE ISLAND -- President Bush wants to give religious organizations a larger role as providers of social services. Government, he says, should be partners with faith-based groups, which have proved indispensable in meeting the needs of the poor. Under the president's charitable choice initiative, faith groups would be able to receive federal money to run social programs "without changing their mission." Announcing his faith-based initiative two weeks after taking office, Bush said there are "deep needs and real suffering in the shadow of America's affluence. Problems like addiction and abandonment and gang violence, domestic violence, mental illness and homelessness." To the representatives of religious and charitable organizations invited to hear his announcement, the new president added, "We are called by conscience to respond." Civil libertarians, though, have serious problems with Bush's proposal. His initiative, they say, not only violates church-state separation, but it will pit religious groups against each other as they scrap for scarce federal dollars. Further, they add, the Bush plan will allow discrimination in hiring and religious coercion of people seeking help. These were some of the arguments made last Saturday by Robert Boston, assistant director of communications for Americans United for Separation of Church and State. "I really do believe that the faith-based initiative is bad to its core," Boston said during a talk sponsored by the St. Petersburg Largo Area Secular Humanists. "We have rejected any type of church tax. Money being transferred from the treasury, which is tax money, into the coffers of religious groups is a church tax. ... Under this plan, which involves no new money, potentially billions of tax money will be shifted from the public sector to the private sector." The president's proposal is an attempt to befriend blacks, Boston added. "My personal belief is that this is part of a plan to woo the black clergy. In many parts of the country, black clergy have taken government money to administer secular programs in the past. So they're used to the idea of working in cooperation with the government. Now Bush is telling them, I'm going to give you money and fewer regulations, and that sounds pretty good to some folks," he said. While the president's plan has run into outright opposition from liberals and even reservation from conservatives such as Christian Coalition founder Pat Robertson, local leaders of three faith-based organizations are more receptive. "I think it's a healthy proposal and probably the opponents of it have held an inaccurate view of the separation of church and state," said the Rev. D. Scott Boggs of Northside Baptist Church. "They have divorced the relationship between church and state, which was never the intent of our Founding Fathers. I think religious organizations are essential in informing a society as regards to morals and compassion. To negate the influence of religious groups is unwise." The Rev. Manuel Sykes of Bethel Community Baptist Church dismissed assertions that the president is using federal money to lure blacks. "I don't see that. ... What I hope you will see is that (federal money) is granted equally across the races," Sykes said. His church already provides food, clothing, rent and utility assistance to the poor, he said. But, he added: "If we were able to get government help, it would enhance what we are doing. ... The church has to get out there and get active in solving community problems." Joseph Citro, executive director of the Catholic Charities Foundation of the Diocese of St. Petersburg, said he is both optimistic and cautious about the program. "None of the faith-based organizations would be prepared to accept funds that will compromise their faith positions and their moral beliefs," he said, adding that it is premature to say how the president's proposal would affect his organization. "We don't really have the plan before us. ... What's laudable is that the president is trying to find a way where he can provide services through faith-based organizations, making sure that the faith-based organization is not compromised in any way and making sure that the government isn't either," Citro said. Under current legislation, charitable and faith-based organizations such as Catholic Charities and Lutheran Social Services already receive government funding for social work. Those programs, Americans United points out, have safeguards that guarantee church-state separation and prevent discrimination in hiring and proselytizing. Bush's faith-based initiative, though, coupled with legislation passed during the Clinton administration, allow for no such oversight, according to Americans United. "We don't need this plan," Boston emphasized during his talk at the Treasure Island Tennis and Yacht Club. It's not that his organization is against religious groups' receiving government funds, Boston said. "There's a long history of religious organizations' accepting government funds to provide services under certain conditions. But here is the thing. The money is not given as a blank check. There are strings attached. For example, the groups that take this money are not engaged in aggressive proselytism. Compare that with what Bush wants to do. He basically wants to take federal money, turn it over to religious groups and say be as religious as you want to be. ... In fact, he argues that this religious impulse, that is what makes these programs work," Boston said. Even so, he added, "The Bush plan opens the door to federal regulation of religion." Sykes said he welcomes any oversight that may come with Bush's program. "I believe that everybody that receives money or resources should be a good steward," he said. "It's important that people realize that a lot of the faith-based programs are already receiving funds from federal, state and local governments," Citro, of Catholic Charities, said. "And I believe that the history of these agencies has shown that they administer these programs well. ... We answer to a higher authority." Americans United also has other objections to Bush's faith-based program. "The proposal seems to ... allow groups to pressure needy individuals to take part in religion against their will," Boston said. This week Americans United and several like-minded groups unveiled a petition signed by more than 850 religious leaders who object to the Bush initiative. On Wednesday, Republicans convened a faith-based summit to discuss the program, and on Thursday Congress began hearings about the issue. The Center for Public Justice, an independent think tank whose purpose is "to serve God, advance justice and transform public life," is a staunch supporter of the president's initiative. In fact, the center's former director of social policy studies, Stanley Carlson-Thies, has been hired by the new White House Office for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. During a telephone interview, James Skillen, president of the center, defended Bush's faith-based initiative. "The first amendment says nothing about the separation of the religious and political spheres," he said. "It doesn't presume the view of reality that Americans United accepts." The Center for Public Justice also sees no problem with allowing faith groups to be restrictive in their hiring. "If for some of them it means hiring only Jews or Christians or people who share their view, then they ought to be free to do that," Skillen said. "If they are forced to hire just anybody, it would force them to change who they are." Additionally, said Skillen, overtly religious groups should receive government money for their social programs. "No group should be excluded from cooperating with government just because it is religious. ... We want to give welfare services to those who need them. Any group that is delivering services to those people should be accepted without any prequalification as to their religious condition," Skillen said. "What our society has tried to do," said Boggs, of Northside Christian Church, "is to say that people who have traditional systems of beliefs are restricted from influencing society at large. That artificial restriction is what is insane. We have a benevolent ministry. We give away approximately $40,000 to people who are in need. ... So for us, acts of compassion are not a program. They are a life value." Boggs and Sykes, like Pat Robertson, have reservations about who should get the money Bush wants to share with faith groups. "There would have to be some qualifications, as there is in everything," Boggs said. "Just because they are a religious group, that should not automatically qualify them for this program. I think the qualifications should require some financial integrity, some longevity in the community and to be free of "cultic' practices." Boggs defined "cultic practices" as "any practice dealing with blood sacrifices or the physical torture of individuals" or groups "that would deny its members certain civil freedoms." Sykes offered his own guidelines. "The only persons that I would say shouldn't get (grants) would be the churches of Wicca," he said, referring to Witchcraft, a nature-based religion that followers say predates Christianity. "I don't believe in discrimination against anybody because they are different from I am. I say, whoever does the work and produces results ought to receive funding."
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