WASHINGTON (ABP) — Continuing a familiar pattern, President Bush used his administrative powers June 1 to make it easier for churches and other religious organizations to receive federal money for social services.
Bush announced an executive order — his third since 2002 — creating new “faith-based and community initiatives” offices in three federal agencies. The creation of such offices in the Department of Veterans' Affairs, the Department of Commerce and the Small Business Administration brings to 10 the number of federal departments with liaison offices for religious charities.
Bush also ordered those agencies to remove administrative and procedural barriers to churches and other thoroughly religious groups applying for, and receiving, funding for social-services programs they administer.
Bush's plan for faith-based initiatives has been a centerpiece of Bush's domestic policy since he took office in 2001. But the plan largely has been thwarted in Congress, where legislators' concerns over church-state separation and religious discrimination in hiring have stymied bills to accomplish it.
“So,” Bush said in a speech announcing the latest changes, “I got frustrated and signed an Executive Order” accomplishing many of the same goals.
Bush was addressing nearly 2,000 clergypersons and other religious-charity leaders who had gathered in Washington for a national conference on government partnerships with faith-based charities. The White House had previously hosted a dozen similar regional conferences around the country.
In a speech that the supportive crowd frequently punctuated with applause and shouts of “amen,” Bush lamented previous government barriers to deeply religious groups receiving federal social-service funds.
“I believe it is in the national interest that government stand side-by-side with people of faith who work to change lives for the better,” Bush said. “I understand in the past, some in government have said government cannot stand side-by-side with people of faith…. I viewed this as not only bad social policy — because policy bypassed the great works of compassion and healing that take place — I viewed it as discrimination. And we needed to change it.”
Noting that “we're changing the culture here in America,” Bush touted the $1.1 billion in grants that federal agencies gave to faith-based organizations in 2003 — a 15 percent increase, he said, over the previous year.
Bush and other supporters of the faith-based plan argue that religious groups should be able to compete for federal funds on a “level playing field” with secular charities.
They also contend that faith-based groups are more efficient at delivering social services than government agencies, although recent studies on the subject have shown little difference in results between secular and religious service providers.
“Governments can hand out money. But governments cannot put love in a person's heart or a sense of purpose in a person's life,” Bush said. “The truth of the matter is that comes when a loving citizen puts their arm around a brother and sister in need and says, 'I love you, and God loves you, and together we can perform miracles.'”
Federal case law has long held that government cannot fund religious proselytizing, education or worship activities because that would violate the First Amendment's ban on government support for religion. Bush has repeatedly said that his program would not fund prohibited activities.
But the plan's critics argue that it would be nearly impossible for the government to monitor churches or other small religious charities to make sure no government money was going to such activities. They also contend that such monitoring would cause unconstitutional entanglement between the government and religious groups.
But Bush has said that debate misses the point — that the ultimate goal is to provide the best services possible to the needy. “If you're a results-oriented debater, you say, all I care about is making sure that the addict receives help. And if it takes changing a person's heart to change addiction, we ought to welcome the power that changes a person's heart in our society,” he said.
-30-