There are so many things wrong with Bush’s renewed interest in his so-called “faith-based” initiative, it’s hard to know where to start.
Let’s focus on Bush’s speech to the first-ever White House National Conference on Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. The president made it quite clear that he’s not only willing to fudge facts about his own plan, but that he doesn’t really understand his initiative at all.
“See, I understand the limitations of government. 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. 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.”
The logic here is twisted. Religion is good, Bush says, because it can change lives. But pesky laws won’t let Bush use tax dollars for religious purposes. What to do? The president thinks he’s figured it out — he wants to fund religion, so he’ll give money to religious groups who will in turn “perform miracles” with public funds. It’s a less-than-subtle shell game.
“I do believe that groups should be allowed to access social service grants, so long as they don’t proselytize, or exclude somebody simply because they don’t share a certain faith. In other words, there’s a way to accomplish the separation of church and state, and at the same time, accomplish the social objective of having America become a hopeful place, and a loving place.”
Bush is either confused or he’s lying (or perhaps it’s both). The White House faith-based plan specifically permits public funds to go to religious ministries who can use the money to promote their faith and incorporate religion into their social service programs. That’s called proselytizing with public funds — and it’s an obvious violation of church-state separation.
“One of the things — I’ll never forget this, when I was I was the Governor of Texas, one of the early initiatives in my governorship, one of the faith-based initiatives was to turn over a part of the prison unit to a faith program, Chuck Colson’s program. He convinced me that this would be a great opportunity to change lives.”
Bush emphasized his desire to fund religious programs that “work,” but failed to mention that Chuck Colson’s InnerChange prison program clearly didn’t work at all. In fact, convicts who participated in the program were more likely to be rearrested and noticeably more likely to be reimprisoned after their release.
But Bush’s key point was about “discrimination.” He used the word six times yesterday and kept returning to the point throughout his speech.
“I’m telling America we need to not discriminate against faith-based programs. We need to welcome them so our society is more wholesome, more welcoming, and more hopeful for every single citizen.”
Bush is completely wrong for two reasons. First, there is no discrimination against faith-based programs in America. Catholic Charities, for example, has received millions of dollars in public grants over the years for social service programs, as has Lutheran Social Services. The problem isn’t that religious groups can’t apply for grants, it’s that Bush has identified safeguards built into the law and asked for them to be eliminated.
For example, when Catholic Charities, which is obviously a “faith-based” group, receives a taxpayer-financed grant, the group has to accept certain conditions (Bush calls them “barriers”; I call them safeguards). The money can’t be used to promote religion — it’s supposed to be a social service grant — and the group can’t discriminate in hiring or among beneficiaries. Bush believes these “strings” are dangerous; he couldn’t be more wrong.
Second, if Bush is really concerned about discrimination, he should have a few qualms about his own plan. The most controversial element of his faith-based initiative in Congress has been the fact that it allows religious ministries to get tax dollars and discriminate in hiring.
I have little doubt that Bush is sincere about his faith. Religion played a role in helping him overcome his substance abuse problems, and in all likelihood, Bush wants others to enjoy the same benefit.
That said, he seems wholly unaware of the intrinsic flaws in his own plan and carelessly indifferent to legal hurdles that protect taxpayers, beneficiaries, and religious institutions themselves. Bush seems to think this will be a strong election year ploy — the photo from yesterday’s speech on the White House website once again shows Bush hugging a black person to prove his “compassion” — but the policy isn’t going anywhere because he simply can’t answer fundamental questions that have burden his plan for over three years.