EDITORIAL: Promise & peril of president’s plan_110303

Posted: 10/31/03

EDITORIAL:
Promise & peril of president's plan

President Bush's latest trip to Texas illustrates why he's enamored with faith-based initiatives and points to the peril of government entanglement in religion.

The president visited Dallas Oct. 29 to shine a spotlight on Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship, already one of the brightest lights in the south part of the city. The trip commemorated completion of the new $25 million, 172,000-square-foot Christian Education Center that houses the church's school, athletics facilities and outreach ministries. It's home base for Project Turnaround, the mentoring program that helps children and youth avoid gangs and drugs.

“I'm glad to be with people who are transforming a community one heart and soul at a time,” Bush declared. Who wouldn't? Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship has grown from 10 people meeting in Pastor Tony Evans' home in 1976 to 7,000 members today, plus ministries that touch many times that number. The church could be Exhibit A in any discussion of how faith-based initiatives can change lives and communities, and it has done so without government funding.

“For the sake of so many people in need, this country should support the armies of compassion,” Bush said. “… Our government should support the good work of people who are changing America.”

While the president's desire to support “armies of compassion” is commendable, his advocacy of government funding of faith-based initiatives is fallacious at several points.

First, Bush represents a political philosophy that distrusts government and wants less government involvement in people's lives. But on this score, he's willing to entangle government in that most sacred and separate of institutions, the church.

Advocates of Bush's brand of faith-based initiatives will argue just the opposite–that he's trying to turn over to religious groups activities that have been bungled by government bureaucracy. That sounds reasonable, but anyone who paid attention in high school civics class knows better. What government funds, it inevitably regulates. So, when government money flows into church coffers, government regulations and entanglement follow.

Do you see the irony? The very bureaucracy blamed for causing government initiatives to fail will be inserted into the structure of faith-based ministries. This is like planting weeds among the wheat and still expecting a bumper crop.

Some might counter that government should give the money to faith-based initiatives and then back out, refuse oversight, decline supervision. The president already has experience with organizations that handle money with timid or no government oversight: Enron, Worldcom, Tyco. That would be terrific for the church.

Second, the president's desire to fund faith-based initiatives defies the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion … .” But wait, strict constitutional interpreters say, Congress isn't making any laws. Exactly. Congress has declined, because many lawmakers understand the Constitution. So, the president has attempted to circumvent the clear intent of the Constitution by executive order. Another irony–a rigid constitutional interpreter who sidesteps the Constitution when it does not serve his purposes.

Third, faith-based initiatives already have presented a legal paradox. An important tenet of faith-based anything is the ability to follow the dictates of religious belief. In this case, that would include the freedom to discriminate in employment due to religious understandings. So, if a faith-based ministry receives government funding, either (a) it will submit to government guidelines that forbid discrimination in employment or (b) the government will sponsor religious discrimination. Churches should not be expected to forego their beliefs, just as government should not be expected to support discrimination.

The president makes a good point: Faith-based initiatives do seem to excel at changing lives. The challenge is to support them without defying the Constitution, undermining religious liberty and corrupting the ministries themselves.

He should work toward success by taking more modest but reasonable steps:

Provide generous tax incentives for contributions to faith-based initiatives. Allow the money that supports them to flow directly from Americans' pocketbooks, not through the government.

Use his “bully pulpit” to encourage giving to faith-based initiatives. He can make charitable giving a badge of patriotism and honor, morally compelling all Americans to lend support.

Lead by example. Every year, we know how much he makes. Let's see at least a tithe go to support faith-based initiatives.

–Marv Knox
E-mail the editor at marvknox@baptiststandard.com