Bill Berkowitz
March 23, 2005

Faith The Nation

The Bush Administration awarded $2 billion in grants to religious organizations in 2004. Is Team Bush setting up a National Endowment for Religion?

On March 1, President George W. Bush told the more than 250 religious Faith the Nationleaders attending the White House Faith-Based and Community Initiatives Leadership Conference at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, DC, that he was committed to his faith-based initiative "despite congressional apathy and criticism from some that he hasn't done enough to push the agenda," the Scripps Howard News Service reported.

"What I want to know is, 'Are we helping increase the number of new groups, small groups, first-time appliers for federal money? Are we doing that? Are we getting beyond those great, courageous faith-based programs that have been providing help for a long period of time? Are we reaching beyond the Salvation Army (website) or the Catholic Charities (website), the fantastic pillars of the faith-based program?'" Bush said. "And the answer is, 'We are.'"

The president also told the group that seven federal agencies had given $2 billion to faith-based organizations in 2004 -- 10.3 percent of the total funding awarded through 151 programs and 17 program areas at the seven federal agencies. This figure was a substantial increase from the $1.17 billion awarded in 2003. "In one year," according to a White House Fact Sheet, "HHS, HUD, Justice, Labor, and Education saw a 20% increase in the number of grants to faith-based organizations with 334 more grants awarded, and a 14% increase in the amount awarded to faith-based organizations - an increase of $164 million."

According to an early March report by BP News -- a news service of the Southern Baptist Convention -- "The Department of Housing and Human Services alone saw an 88 percent increase in the number of awards to faith-based organizations since 2002 -- from 483 to 908."

Richard Land, the president of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (website) and one of the early critics of the president's faith-based initiative four years ago, attended the conference and was one of about a dozen religious leaders who met with Bush at the hotel before the speech. "It was crystal clear to anyone in the room that this is a critical issue for the president and there is no more important domestic policy issue than the faith-based initiative, which will further empower the armies of compassion to help alleviate suffering and bring hope to those at the margins of American society," Land told Baptist Press.

Bush's remarks may have been at least in part designed to reassure his Christian evangelical base that he is still actively backing the faith-based initiative. In February, David Kuo, the former deputy director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, "charged that the plan is popular with religious leaders who are influential in elections. But Kuo said the White House has not been committed to ending the stalemate in Congress," the Guardian reported. (For more from Kuo, see "Please, Keep Faith".)

Faith in Job Training

Within 10 days of President Bush's first inauguration in 2000, he unveiled what was to be one of the cornerstones of his domestic policy agenda; the faith-based initiative. Unlike the very public debate that is going on over the privatization of Social Security, the president's faith-based initiative hasn't gotten nearly the play in the media. Yet despite Congress' failure to pass substantive faith-based legislation in the four years since the president created the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives (website), Team Bush has been steadily advancing the ball, creating faith-based offices in at least 10 federal agencies, and issuing a slew of Executive Orders aimed at "leveling the playing field."

Two days after the president's meeting with religious leaders, the House of Representatives passed H.R.-27, the Job Training Improvement Act by a 220-200 vote. The bill "includes a provision rolling back existing civil rights protections and allowing 'faith-based' groups, for the first time, to engage in government-funded religious discrimination in jobs funded through the program," stated a pre-vote press release from Americans United for Separation of Church and State (website). An amendment to restore civil rights protections to the bill, introduced by Rep. Robert C. Scott (D-Val.), failed on a 239-186 vote.

The 1964 Civil Rights Act allows for religious organizations to take religion into account in their hiring practices, but the Act doesn't deal with that issue in cases of groups that receive federal money. "Receipt of federal funds should not be conditioned on a faith-based organization's giving up part of its religious identity and mission," read a statement from the White House.

Before the House vote on the Job Training Improvement Act, Tony Perkins, the president of the Washington, DC-based conservative lobbying group, the Family Research Council (website), weighed in with his support in the FRS's daily online newsletter, Tony Perkins' Washington Update. Perkins maintained that the discrimination provision was necessary so that "faith-based organizations [could]...compete on an equal footing for Federal funding within constitutional guidelines, without impairing the religious character of such organizations and without diminishing the religious freedom of beneficiaries."

"Religious discrimination has no place in government-funded programs," countered the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, Americans United executive director. "Instead of giving in to the Bush administration's unwise agenda, lawmakers should pass a job training package that respects all Americans' civil rights." The bill now moves on to the Senate.

SBA Establishes Faith-Based Center

In mid-February, the U.S. Small Business Administration joined nine other federal agencies in creating its own Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives (website). The SBA claims that its office is aimed at assisting non-profit organizations familiarize themselves with the possibility of winning a grant for their work around aiding small businesses.

"By working more closely with faith-based and other organizations, we can advance the President's goal of bringing jobs and hope to economically distressed communities all across our nation," said SBA Administrator Hector V. Barrett.

According to a press release from the SBA, the agency's "field representatives are already developing workshops, training seminars and open houses to reach out and educate faith-based and community organizations about SBA programs and to ensure that these groups have equal access to the services."

Selling Faith to the States

In mid-March, Michigan's Democratic Governor Jennifer Granholm "joined a growing number of politicians seemingly seeking to use the Bush' administration's so-called 'faith-based' initiative to curry favor with those so-called 'values voters,'" the Web site of Americans United for Separation of Church and State reported.

"In a speech laced with Bible references, Granholm told a state-organized gathering of religious groups and leaders that her administration would open a 'faith-based' initiatives office to funnel public dollars to religious groups that try to offer social services to the state's neediest people." Granholm told the crowd that it was important to connect faith-based organizations with state government.

And in Minnesota, "Gov. Tim Pawlenty is proposing the state hire a coordinator to work with faith-based groups seeking state grants to provide social services," Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) reported. The Governor is asking the Legislature to approve $300,000 to hire a coordinator and create a Minnesota Council of Faith-based Initiatives.

According to MPR, while 20 governors have already set up faith-based offices, the Wisconsin-based Freedom from Religion Foundation (website) "says the initiatives violate the constitutional separation of church and state."

Annie Laurie Gaylor, the co-founder of Freedom from Religion Foundation said that her group plans to file a suit against the state of Minnesota "over a faith-based grant, although she declined to give details," MPR reported. Gaylor added that "state initiatives like the one Pawlenty is proposing raise similar constitutional questions."

"It is showing preference to religion and endorsing religion, and the websites that are funded through the state are intermingling the state logos with religion, and I think it's a very ripe kind of violation to litigate," Gaylor maintained.

In early January Gaylor's Freedom from Religion Foundation won a suit they had filed against MentorKids USA, an Arizona-based prison mentoring program. U.S. District Court Judge John Shabaz ruled that federal funds awarded to MentorKids USA violated the First Amendment prohibition against the promotion of religion. The case against MentorKids USA was such a slam dunk that the Department of Health and Human Services had already withdrawn funding from the group before Judge Shabaz rendered his ruling. In fact, the Department "asked Shabaz to dismiss the suit, contending it was moot" because the grant had been withdrawn, the Capital Times of Madison, Wisconsin reported." But by the time the grant had been cut off the MentorKids program already had received $175,000 of the $225,000 three-year grant it had been promised in 2003.

According to the decision by Judge Shabaz, a 2003 memo to case managers written by MentorKids President John Gibson said that the program's mission statement was to "locate, train and empower mentors to be the presence of Christ to kids facing tough life challenges through one-on-one relationships." "Similar messages 'permeate' the program's Web site and board minutes, the decision stated," the Capital Times reported.

A mid-February suit filed in Pennsylvania by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Pennsylvania and Americans United for Separation of Church and State charged that "The only vocational training program available at a Pennsylvania county jail forces prisoners to participate in religious discussions, religious lectures and prayer," according to an ACLU Press Release.

"Incarcerated men and women should not have to subject themselves to religious proselytizing in order to get the skills they need to reenter the workforce," said Mary Catherine Roper, an attorney with the ACLU of Pennsylvania. "Giving public dollars to private groups to teach inmates job skills or promote other non-religious services is an important part of this country's social safety net, but using taxpayer dollars to convert a captive audience is unconstitutional."

Faithing Florida

Of all the states to come on board the faith-based train, Governor Jeb Bush's Florida is leading the pack. The centerpiece for the Governor has been the 2003 conversion of the Lawtey Correctional Institution in Bradford County, Florida to an all-faith-based facility. In addition, according to a recent wide-ranging report in the Florida Times-Union, "since about 2002...a number of [Florida] state governmental departments and agencies have created faith-based liaisons. Their job is to help eliminate obstacles to faith-based funding." They include: Agency for Workforce Innovation, Workforce Florida, Department of Children and Families, Department of Community Affairs, Department of Corrections, Department of Elder Affairs, Department of Education, Department of Health, Department of Juvenile Justice, Department of Management Services, Department of State, Front Porch Florida, and the Office of Drug Control.

"The governor has created a 25-member faith-based advisory board...and liaisons in state departments who are focused on making it easier for religious and grass-roots non-profits to qualify for social services grants," the newspaper also pointed out.

Jim Towey, director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, praised Florida for being "one of the leading laboratories on the faith-based initiative."

However, these so-called laboratories have not developed any systematic way of tracking the results of grants given to religious groups. Towey acknowledged that the lack of oversight was a problem in an interview with Christianity Today earlier this year.

When asked about "guidelines to measure the success of the grants," Towey answered rather feebly:

"There is a lot of support on the Hill to start putting more of an emphasis on outcomes and effectiveness. The President's budget is going to reflect that.

"Certainly, the local groups can help us by making a better case for what they do. There is not a lot of outcome measurement. The more they can say, 'We got this grant and here is what it changed,' the better."

One of the most troubling things to come out of the Freedom from Religion Foundation's suit in Wisconsin was an acknowledgement by the DHHS that there is little oversight regarding the monitoring of grants: A DHSS spokesperson told Annie Laurie Gaylor that "it was up to watchdog groups...to monitor the activities of groups getting federal funding." That, Gaylor pointed out, essentially means that "the government has no guidelines in place or desire to monitor these groups."