WASHINGTON (ABP) — A panel advising President Obama has narrowly recommended that churches wishing to use federal funds to perform social services set up separate non-profit corporations in order to avoid mixing funds for secular purposes with those for religious ones.
The recommendation is generally backed by supporters of strong church-state separation — and goes against one of the original rationales that President George W. Bush used in setting up the White House’s faith-based office in the first place.
The President’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships voted 13-12 to endorse the recommendation that federal officials “should require houses of worship that wish to receive direct federal social service funds to establish separate corporations as a necessary means for achieving church-state separation and protecting religious autonomy, while also urging states to reduce any unnecessary administrative costs and burdens associated with attaining this status.”
The tally was announced on the White House faith-based office’s blog Feb. 8. The minority voted instead to recommend that separate incorporation not be required “because it is not always the best means to achieve these goals, and because it may be prohibitively costly and onerous, particularly for smaller organizations, resulting in the disruption and deterrence of effective and constitutionally permissible relationships.”
Many religious groups have long received federal funding to perform social services by setting up separate non-profit groups — usually organized under Section 501(c)(3) of the federal tax code — that operate independently of the denominations or houses of worship that created them. The separate incorporation provided an additional safeguard that government funds not be used for worship, proselytizing or other explicitly religious purposes. Federal courts have held that taxpayer funds cannot be used to promote such religious activities.
But President Bush argued that the requirement was one of many unnecessary barriers preventing small religious charities providing effective social services from expanding their programs. One of the cornerstones of his so-called “faith-based initiative” effort — the centerpiece of his domestic policy — was to change federal laws and regulations that required such separate incorporation so churches could participate in grant programs.
But groups that support a high wall of separation between church and state generally opposed Bush’s effort. Many of the members of Obama’s council who supported the recommendation for separate incorporation represent that point of view — including council chair Melissa Rogers, a professor at Wake Forest Divinity School and former general counsel of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty.
Those who voted for the opposite recommendation were generally conservatives who supported Bush’s faith-based program, such as former Southern Baptist Convention president Frank Page. But the tally also included a few progressives, such as Peg Chemberlin of the National Council of Churches.
One church-state separationist group welcomed the vote.
“The narrow margin of the vote should by no means take away from the clear message being sent to the president — houses of worship and other faith-based organizations have an important role to play in providing social services, but safeguards must be put in place that protect both the vitality of religion and the integrity of government,” said Welton Gaddy, president of the Interfaith Alliance and pastor for worship and preaching at Northminster Baptist Church in Monroe, La., in a press release.
However, one of the largest controversies surrounding Bush’s faith-based initiative and the Obama White House was left unresolved — whether religious charities receiving federal dollars may discriminate on the basis of faith in hiring for taxpayer-funded positions.
As a candidate in 2008, Obama said he opposed such discrimination with federal funds. But since he took office, the White House has taken a more cautious approach, saying federal grant-making programs would deal with the question on a case-by-case basis.
The Baptist Joint Committee and the Interfaith Alliance are among several groups that signed on to a letter sent to Obama Feb. 4 — a year after the executive order that established his faith-based council — urging him to complete the reforms he promised to the faith-based program.
“Your administration inherited a faith-based initiative created by the Bush administration that was deeply flawed and a dramatic departure from the way government had, for decades, provided social-welfare services for our nation’s most needy citizens,” the letter said.
It continued: “Nonetheless, we are disappointed that now, one year after your executive order, almost every aspect of the Bush administration faith-based initiative remains in place — the White House and all the federal agencies are still operating under all the inadequate rules and insufficient safeguards imposed by the previous administration.”
A White House official, asked by an Associated Baptist Press reporter to respond to the letter, said Feb. 11 only that “the White House is looking forward to receiving the council’s final report.”
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Robert Marus is managing editor and Washington bureau chief for Associated Baptist Press.
Previous stories:
On church-state issues, Obama brings new perspective, slow policy change (7/8/2009)
Church-state groups press Holder to withdraw Bush-era hiring memo (9/18/2009)
On Bush’s faith-based programs, Obama says save best, ditch rest (7/6/2008)