Religious leaders reacting to President Bush’s State of the Union speech seemed generally pleased with his proposal to further address the AIDS crisis in Africa but remained divided over his plans for confronting Iraq as well as domestic issues relating to cloning, abortion and faith-based groups.
Faith groups across the political and theological spectrum praised the president for addressing AIDS in Africa and the Caribbean by asking Congress to spend $15 billion in the next five years to fight the disease in those parts of the world.
“For millions of children in Africa and the Caribbean,” Bush’s message … wasn’t about war and peace,” said Ken Casey, special assistant on AIDS for World Vision, the evangelical Christian relief agency. “It was about life and death.”
The president’s words on Iraq prompted a more divided reaction.
Jim Wallis, editor of Sojourners, an ecumenical organization that opposes war, said: “Despite the president’s strong rhetoric, he has not made a convincing case for war. Most churches have concluded that a war with Iraq would not be a just war.”
But Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, took a different stance. “I thought the president made a compelling case that Saddam Hussein and his weapons of mass destruction are a clear danger to the security of the citizens of the United States and all our allies,” he said.
Bush’s plans to advance his faith-based initiative by including religious groups among drug treatment programs receiving federal funding sparked criticism from those concerned about church-state separation.
“Where will this money come from if not from funding currently going to secular organizations doing this very same work?” asked Denise T. Davidoff, chair of the Interfaith Alliance Foundation. “Why do we want to invade the border between church and state and risk the loss of a fundamental building block of this nation?”
Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice, said he thinks faith-based groups should be considered a “viable option” among federally funded programs to help addicts.
The president’s reiteration of his opposition to cloning and the procedure critics call “partial-birth abortion” also prompted mixed reactions. Supporters like Focus on the Family President James Dobson said Bush’s language showed “strength and courage.”
Mark Pelavin, associate director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, said Bush’s policies would hinder medical research and “chip away at women’s reproductive rights.”
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