Caution has been the overriding reaction of most religious groups to President Bush’s faith-based initiatives in the days since he announced his plan for helping address the country’s social needs. The program is expected to make as much as $24 billion in federal funding available to religious groups involved in charitable work over the next 10 years.
Bush’s plan is designed to encourage giving to nonprofit organizations that provide social services, as well as enable faith-based and other charities to receive federal funds in their work.
The president initiated his approach Jan. 29 by signing executive orders to establish a White House Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives, as well as centers in five federal departments to remove barriers to religious and other organizations working with government to help the needy.
In a written statement, Robert E. Reccord, president of the Southern Baptist North American Mission Board, expressed gratitude for a president “who sees value in faith-based ministry and (is) optimistic about the Bush administration’s proposals to end the federal government’s discrimination against faith-based organizations.
“Although we have not seen the most recent proposals, we assume they preserve the religious freedom of all involved, including the caring people who provide services as well as those to whom they minister.
“However, faith-based ministries need to proceed with caution,” Reccord’s Jan. 30 statement said. “There can be a tendency over time for the government to attempt to control that which it subsidizes. Great wisdom will be required on this journey.”
Reccord said he believes strongly “in the power of faith-based ministry to change the lives of people in need.”
NAMB helps underwrite almost 90 inner-city ministry centers spends more than $1 million on hunger relief while NAMB-related volunteers restore hundreds of inner-city homes each summer and are the American Red Cross’ largest disaster relief partner.
Earlier, Richard Land, president of the SBC’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, said he believes the proposal can be set up in a constitutional manner and in a way that does not inhibit religious belief or expression. It must meet, however, these grounds rules, he said:
There must be a viable secular alternative; no religious group should be restricted or discriminated against in the distribution of funds; government aid must go only for the nonreligious aspects of the program; and it should “voucherize” the intended beneficiaries of the funds, empowering them to determine which provider to choose.
If the government attempts to censor the message of a group, then that ministry “should never, under any circumstances, accept the money,” Land said.
The Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs joined a Jan. 30 letter from the Coalition Against Religious Discrimination warning the president its members have “constitutional and policy concerns” about his plan.
The letter said the members had concerns about the religious freedom rights of the beneficiaries of such programs and the status of state and local licensing requirements.
They also said they anticipated “working with you to remedy these constitutional and policy defects.”
The White House distributed a 17-page document Jan. 30 providing more information on Bush’s plan. Titled “Rallying the Armies of Compassion,” the booklet lists these measures among those intended to increase private charitable contributions:
-Expansion of the charitable deduction to the 80 million taxpayers who do not itemize on their income-tax form.
-Encouragement of states to give a credit against state income or other taxes for gifts to nonprofit groups that combat poverty.
-Raise the limit from 10 to 15 percent on the value of a corporation’s taxable income that may be deducted for charitable donations.
-Create a public/private partnership, known as a “compassion capital fund,” to help faith-based and other community programs to start or expand.
The document says pilot programs can be expected in the following areas:
Mentoring the children of prisoners; rehabilitating inmates in prerelease programs; operating group maternity homes; and providing after-school care for low-income children.
The five federal departments that will house centers for faith-based and community initiatives are Education, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Justice and Labor.
The centers will perform a department-wide audit to identify any policies that discriminate against or discourage the participation of faith-based and other community groups. (BP)
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