Speaking of Bush’s faith-based initiative (see below), James Towey, head of Bush’s faith-based office, probably told the LA Times yesterday more than he intended. It was a mistake that could further hinder Bush’s beleaguered initiative.
The administration, and the president in particular, has insisted from the outset that Bush’s faith-based plan has been about helping people in need. As far as the White House is concerned, religious groups are anxious to provide valuable social services so the government should encourage and “empower” them to do so. It’s not about a religio-political agenda, they argue, just getting assistance to people who need it.
It’s why Towey’s off-message remark yesterday was so telling.
The head of the White House’s faith-based initiatives program said Tuesday that a “culture war” was dividing the Bush administration and its critics who challenge the constitutionality of mixing church and state.
“It’s true that much attention is being placed on the war in Iraq, but there’s also another war that’s going on,” said Jim Towey, director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, during a conference promoting the funding of religious groups engaged in social service activities. “It’s a culture war that really gets to the heart of the questions about what is the role of faith in the public square.”
So much for message discipline; Towey accidentally told us the White House’s real agenda.
Bush’s crusade to give millions of tax dollars to religious ministries isn’t really about helping the poor. It couldn’t be — if families in need were the root of his concern, he’d be expanding, not cutting, public programs that benefit those desperate for assistance. The stated motivation for the faith-based initiative never really made any sense in the context of the broader Bush agenda.
But Towey connects the dots for us. Bush wants to fund religion so he can win a “culture war.” What a shock.
Towey singled out my friends at Americans United for Separation of Church and State for criticism. I think the group’s response sums things up nicely.
[T]he Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of the Washington-based organization, and other critics charge that the White House initiative is designed to curry favor with evangelicals and other voters considered part of the Republican base.
Lynn said Tuesday that the administration’s support for allowing religious groups that receive government money to make hiring decisions based on religion was tantamount to state-sponsored discrimination.
“He’s right, there is a culture war in America,” Lynn said, referring to Towey.
“But his army is battling for discriminatory hiring and government-funded religion, and my army is fighting for voluntary aid to the poor in churches and in secular groups, and an end to bigotry.”