Opening a social-service program with a perfunctory prayer is generally considered acceptable, but inviting others to saving faith in Jesus Christ or teaching biblical standards of moral conduct is quite another matter. Five quick points. First, welcoming faith-based organizations to the social service table is the position most consistent with the important civic value of tolerance. Too often in our highly pluralistic society, tolerance is understood to mean that we welcome all voices in the public arena except those making exclusive claims to truth. But that confuses tolerance with relativism.
Tolerance is fully compatible with vigorous disagreement.
The only genuinely tolerant position is to welcome all voices, including those that claim that some other voices are wrong. Obviously, supporting only holistic programs grounded in theistic assumptions would constitute discrimination against non-theistic worldviews. Third, Charitable Choice legislation provides a model that private, secular funders can also follow for supporting the social service work of faith-based organizations without funding religion. Faith-based organizations, however, may raise private money to fund these inherently religious activities and include them in their program, so long as clients' participation is optional. Charitable Choice also specifies that agencies cannot select or reject clients on the basis of religion, that participants must freely choose the religious provider, and that a secular alternative must be available.