Church Leaders Warily Hopeful of Bush Initiative
Episcopal News Service. February 20, 2001 [2001-40]
Jerry Hames, Editor of Episcopal Life
(Episcopal Life) Many who supervise Episcopal social-service agencies across the country are reacting to President Bush's announcement of increased government funds for faith-based charities with a single word: caution.
The initiative, announced during a series of appearances by the new president in late January, would allow faith-based groups to compete for about $10 billion in funds for various social-service programs.
At the same time, Bush said that the federal government must maintain the constitutional separation of church and state and that federal funds would not be used for expressly religious purposes.
"It is charities who turn cold cities into true communities," he said, arguing that faith-based charities ought to be able to compete for money on an equal basis with secular charities.
New commitment
Episcopal reaction seemed to reflect a poll by Ellison Research that found Protestant clergy lukewarm to the plan. It found that 46 percent offered weak support, 24 percent said they were mildly opposed, while only 17 percent strongly supported it and 13 percent were strongly opposed.
"We have very little guidance from the General Convention of Executive Council on these issues and, given their complexity, I don't have an immediate recommendation," said Thomas Hart of the church's public-policy office in Washington.
"Overall, I'm hopeful that, despite the numerous challenges, this initiative signals a commitment to poor and needy people in this country that we did not expect," he added. "While there is danger that it is merely an attempt to cut federal spending on social services, and simply let the churches handle it, I don't get that impression so far."
A spokesperson for the Episcopal public-policy office said its staff was deluged with calls the day after Bush's announcement. Many were from those who operate the church's hundreds of parish- and diocesan-supported Jubilee Ministries.
Bureaucratic hell?
"We're doing a lot of work and we'd like more money, say that trillion-and-a-half [dollar] tax cut," said the Rev. Jim Donald of St. Columba's Episcopal Church in Washington. "But when you get into working with the government, you get into a kind of bureaucratic hell."
Donald speaks from experience. When he was involved in an earlier rehabilitation project of an old house for 14 residents, his group had to file papers, he said, "as if we were building a 5,000-unit apartment complex."
Some were exuberant at Bush's announcement. The Rev. Canon Peter Larom, executive director of the Seamen's Church Institute of New York and New Jersey, said he would encourage churches and other faith-based organizations to tailor their programs to fit government financing requirements.
"Faith-based organizations have no compelling reason not to be at the table of government funding," he said. "This funding has not compromised the mission of faith communities. Instead, it has helped revitalize mission and ministry."
In fact, many have enjoyed government support over the past three decades. Churches initiated government-funded low-income housing programs in the 1960s, homeless shelters and soup kitchens in the '80s and overseas relief efforts and resettlement of refugees for a much longer period of time.
Implications for churches
The Rev. Canon Brian Grieves, director of peace and justice ministries at the Episcopal Church Center, said Episcopal agencies and projects have benefitted from government funds for years. Federal grants support totally the work of Episcopal Migration Ministries; the Rev. Carmen Guerrero, Jubilee Ministries staff officer, estimates that $50 million in grants has helped support parish and diocesan Jubilee projects in the past two years.
Grieves said his office will be looking carefully at the implications of Bush's initiative. "There's a lot of questions to be answered before we can decide whether to bring a recommendation to the attention of Executive Council," he said.
Some dioceses, anticipating a host of questions from parishes, are already gearing up. In the Diocese of Los Angeles, Bishop Coadjutor Jon Bruno has established a "diocesan clearinghouse" for information provided by the new White House Office for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, which opened Feb. 20.
Bush's initiative comes at a time when the church's social-service providers say that, even though fewer Americans receive government subsidies because of 1996 welfare-reform legislation, many are poorer. As people are pushed from welfare, a survey by the National Council of Churches of Christ (NCC) notes, their care is being shifted from government agencies to the non-profit sector. And non-profits, including the churches, have a limited capacity to meet the need.
"Faith-based organizations are being called upon to take on more than they are able to offer," said Mary Cooper of the NCC's Washington office, who tallied the results. The NCC canvassed social-service providers and advocates from its 36 mainline Protestant and Orthodox member denominations and from state and local ecumenical and interfaith programs.
Overwhelmingly, respondents said, working families are the fastest-growing group in need, and more and more of them are coming to faith-based organizations and other non-profits seeking food and help with rent, mortgage and utility payments, child care, job training and placement.
Beyond capacity
"Just getting a job is not sufficient to get out of poverty," Cooper said. "We have to help policy makers understand that."
While the issue of church-state separation may create a legal wrangle, some are wondering about the basic matters of time, energy and equity for already-busy religious organizations.
"I think a lot of congregations are going to think about Bush's proposal as something that is outside the range of possibilities for a whole variety of reasons," said Nancy Ammerman, professor of sociology at Hartford Seminary in Connecticut. "One is that it's not their primary mission and the other is that they may already feel like they are at capacity for what they can do."
Ammerman, who spoke recently at Hartford's Trinity College, an Episcopal school, on religion's effect on social services, predicted that it is more likely that congregations would leave the work proposed by Bush to other kinds of religious non-profits, such as Catholic Charities, long a partner with government on social-service programs.
At Bush's announcement on January 29, the faith-based groups represented were diverse--from Christian to Jewish to Muslim organizations--but evangelical Protestant ministries such as Teen Challenge and Prison Fellowship had more of the limelight than mainline Protestant ones.
Roman Catholic bishops initially have welcomed the plan, but cautioned against excessive government red tape or forcing religious groups to dilute their message in exchange for government funds.
"Our bishops' conference particularly welcomes the clear recognition by the president that faith-based and community efforts cannot substitute for just public policy and the responsibilities of the larger society, including the federal government," said Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony, speaking for the bishops' domestic policy committee.
Barry Lynn, an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ who is head of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, opposes the plan. "I've never seen government touch religion where it didn't either trivialize it or politicize it," he said.
"Taking government money is like taking a trip to Temptation Island," Lynn said. "Just don't do it."