|
BUSH'S 'FAITH-BASED' SOCIAL SERVICE PLAN VIOLATES
CONSTITUTION AND INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS, SAYS WATCHDOG
GROUP
BUSH
INITIATIVE IS A 'RADICAL ASSAULT' ON AMERICA'S TRADITION OF
CHURCH-STATE SEPARATION, CHARGES AMERICANS
UNITED
The
White House announced today that President George W. Bush will
unveil plans for a major "faith-based" social service
initiative next week.
Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a
national church-state watchdog group and a leading critic of
the Bush proposal, described the new initiative as a misguided
and dangerous approach to public policy. The scheme will
reportedly include a new office in the White House to promote
government aid to church-run social services.
"People
shouldn't have to go to a church they may not believe in to
get help from the government," said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn,
executive director of Americans United. "Placing people in
need in this kind of position is just plain wrong. This is a
radical assault on the American tradition of church-state
separation.
"The
Constitution created a separation between religion and
government, not a massive new bureaucracy designed to unite
the two," added Lynn, a United Church of Christ minister and
an attorney. "The very existence of a federal office whose
principal purpose is to give tax dollars to religious groups
is in irreparable conflict with the First
Amendment."
According to materials distributed during the campaign,
Bush wants to distribute federal tax dollars to religious
groups to provide a plethora of social services now being
provided by government agencies or secular groups. These
services would include after-school programs for children, job
training, drug treatment, prison rehabilitation programs and
abstinence programs.
Critics
say these kinds of faith-based initiatives are burdened with
many serious flaws. Among the most serious is a provision that
would allow federally funded employment discrimination on
religious grounds. A religious group, for example, will be
able to receive public tax dollars to pay for a job, but still
be free to hang up a sign that says "Jews Need Not
Apply."
"Just
imagine: your money pays for a job that you can't have because
of your religious beliefs," Lynn observed. "That's not
compassionate conservatism, that's blatant
bigotry."
Critics
also charge that the Bush plan will jeopardize the
independence and integrity of church-run social service
programs.
"What
the government funds, it always regulates," said Lynn. "Once
churches, temples, mosques and synagogues are being financed
by the public, some of their freedom will be placed in
jeopardy by the almost certain regulation to
follow."
Bush's
faith-based initiative is part of a broader effort to expand
so-called "charitable choice" funding, which originated with
former-Sen. John Ashcroft (R-Mo.) during the drafting of the
1996 Welfare Reform Act. The concept changed existing law to
permit public funding of "pervasively sectarian" groups where
religion permeates every aspect of the institution.
Faith-based initiatives were a center point of Bush's
presidential campaign. As Bush describes it, this program will
be part of a broader mobilization effort of what Bush has
called his "armies of compassion."
Bush has
explained that the office, once in place, will remove barriers
that prevent additional funding of religious groups,
coordinate federal funding from multiple government agencies
and encourage states to establish their own offices of
faith-based action to facilitate state funds going to
religious groups.
"In
every instance where my administration sees a responsibility
to help people, we will look first to faith-based
organizations, charities and community groups that have shown
their ability to save and change lives," Bush said on July 22,
1999.
"There's
nothing compassionate about Bush's legally dubious scheme,"
concluded Lynn. "Contributions to religious groups must come
from supporters voluntarily, not be forced by the government.
Bush's faith-based initiative is a constitutional nightmare
and a disastrous step in the wrong direction."
Americans United is a religious liberty watchdog group
based in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1947, the organization
represents 60,000 members and allied houses of worship in all
50 states. |