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June 18, 2004/Sivan 29 5764, Vol. 56, No.39
Bush's other war
FLO ECKSTEIN
Publisher
Brace yourself for an uncomfortable ride between now and the November elections. There's a war going on in our nation, between a president leading an "army of compassion" and vigilant citizens fighting to preserve the wall of separation between church and state.
It's a "culture war," says Jim Towey, head of President George W. Bush's White House Office for Faith-Based and Community Activities, between those who support "faith in the public square" and those who would create a "godless orthodoxy."
Shortly after taking office in 2001, Bush set up the office Towey now heads. Bush ordered faith-based desks in 10 federal agencies, including Housing and Urban Development, Justice, Education, Labor, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, and beginning this month, Commerce, the Small Business Administration and Veterans Affairs.
Faith-based programs in religious institutions "can do a better job than government," the president told 2,000 attendees at a White House conference on faith-based initiatives on June l. He said his administration has invested $1.1 billion in grants to such programs. "It's kind of hard to fully account for it," he added.
"Governments can hand out money. But governments cannot put love in a person's heart or a sense of purpose on a person's life," he said. That happens "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.'"
Nearly 14,500 persons also have attended regional conferences sponsored by the White House to spread the word about faith-based funding.
On another front, the Texas Republican Party this month adopted a plank that asserts: "The Republican Party of Texas affirms that the United States of America is a Christian nation, and the public acknowledgement of God is undeniable in our history."
"I thought when I was over there today I was at church," a Baptist minister attending the convention told the San Antonio American-Statesman.
It adds up to a dicey political environment for those who value the sturdy wall of separation between religion and state that for more than 220 years has made this nation a safe place for Jews and other minority groups.
Human relations organizations - including the American Jewish Committee, the Anti-Defamation League, the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, the National Council of Jewish Women and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs - are monitoring and raising objections to the faith-based efforts of the White House and related attempts by some members of Congress and others to merge government programs and political activity with what the AJC terms "pervasively religious institutions," such as churches and synagogues.
To learn more about The White House's faith-based office, visit www.whitehouse.gov/government/fbci/ on the Internet. And while you're online, spend some quality time visiting the Web sites of the Jewish human relations organizations working so hard to protect our well-being.
Contact the writer at flo_eckstein@jewishaz.com.
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