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April 13, 2001/Nisan 20, 5761, Vol. 53, No.28
Town hall ponders faith-based program
BARRY COHEN
Editor
When President Bush established the White House Office on Faith-Based and Community Activities, he proclaimed that charities operated by religious groups should be allowed to compete equally with secular institutions for government funding.
Not yet clear are the likely constitutional, sociological, economic and religious impacts of the effort.
About 70 people met for a town hall meeting March 28 at Temple Beth Israel to consider the implications of Bush's "faith-based initiatives." Event sponsors were the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix and the American Jewish Committee.
Addressing the gathering were Diana Aviv, vice president and director of public policy for the United Jewish Communities Washington Action Office; Eleanor Eisenberg, executive director of the Arizona Civil Liberties Union; and David Kader, professor of law at Arizona State University.
The meeting was meant to educate the community about faith-based initiatives to enable people to make up their own minds, said Tami Schultz, JCRC director.
The problem with assessing the program is that no one knows what form legislation proposed to enact it will take, said Rabbi Robert Kravitz, executive director of the AJC area office. "It is difficult to respond (to the initiatives) when you do not have full information," he added.
According to early assessments, legislation would expand "charitable choice" to allow faith-based institutions to receive federal funds and would increase tax incentives for charitable contributions, Aviv explained. Further, the Bush administration would reward efficiently run programs that receive federal money with additional funds transferred from poorly run federally funded programs, she said.
"I am pleased President Bush is elevating the importance of the nonprofit sector as partners with the government (and) has recognized the church-state separation principle," said Aviv.
Eisenberg disagreed. "Call (the initiative) what it really is - government funding of religion," she said.
The proposed programs have two main problems, Eisenberg said. Either the government will not hold religious institutions accountable for how they use the funding, or it will have to examine their financial statements to make sure the money is used appropriately, she said.
Either approach would violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which maintains the separation between church and state, she added.
The AJC strongly opposes the "charitable-choice" aspect of the faith-based initiatives, said Kravitz. "It is unconstitutional and bad policy."
He cited the AJC's report, "In Good Faith: A Dialogue on Government Funding of Faith-Based Social Services," which states in part: " 'Charitable choice' jeopardizes beneficiaries' rights to religious liberty. By making it possible to integrate tax-funded secular services with religious ones, 'charitable choice' practically invites the use of social service beneficiaries as a captive audience for proselytizing and other religious activities."
A percentage of funding previously earmarked for Catholic Social Services, Lutheran Social Services or Jewish Family and Children's Service and similar organizations would be transferred to little-known religious institutions, he said.
In a phone interview, Aviv agreed that government funding to religious institutions could be misused and that officials would need to ensure that funding is used only to provide social services.
Eisenberg observed that advocates of the faith-based initiatives say the details have not been worked out yet.
Kader said it is difficult to determine the hypothetical constitutionality of Bush's faith-based initiatives because "it is not known yet what form faith-based legislation, if it ever comes to pass, will be."
Sources for ongoing information on faith-based initiatives include the AJC and the JCRC, said Schultz.
"As information comes available through the White House and other agencies, the JCRC will pass it on to the community," she said.
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