Indeed, leaders of the Religious Right have expressed concern about this program because it opens the door to government funding of all religious groups. Rev. Jerry Falwell said that he did not think that Islamic groups should receive government support because of their bigotry toward others. Rev. Pat Robertson expressed concern that groups such as the Church of Scientology and the Unification Church could receive federal funding. Another concern of such leaders is that the requirements the government will put in place will unduly infringe on the religion. If we, for example, wanted to offer such a program, we could obtain a 501-C3 with a separate board of directors, separate funds and receive government support.
Some churches already do exactly that.
Bush's proposal would unduly complicate the situation, creating a government bureaucracy to monitor the organizations to be sure that they complied with the grants. Even those groups that want religion to play a more prominent role in American life recognize that this approach has too many problems to be workable. They don't want the government dictating who they can hire and what they can include in their programs. Either Charitable Choice will allow the groups to hire whomever they want and teach what they want in which case must strongly oppose it because of its violation of the separation of church and state, or it will establish fairly stringent guidelines for groups receiving funds, in which case it seems superfluous. Either way it is a program that we should oppose.