Faith in Government

RECALLING A VOLUNTARISM REMINISCENT OF HERSERT HOOVER, THE FIRST President Bush challenged Americans to shine "a thousand points of light" on the nation's social problems. Bush's "thousand points of light" marked a divide between public and private, church and state, for they substituted the power of individual good works for government action. The second President Bush, in contrast, erases the divide, as he espouses government sponsorship of faith-based solutions to social ills and government incentives to teach individuals "the power of faith." Recalling his father's "thousand points of light," the younger Bush has summoned "armies of compassion" to fulfill government's social policy obligations. But in a bold new departure, he has called upon government to serve the armies of compassion by paying for them to purvey their moral values. Unlike the "thousand points of light," which shined upon a void left by an inactive government, the second Bush's "armies of compassion" have enlisted government in an activist faith-based mission and in turn have been deputized by government to carry that mission out. Part of this mission is to spread the gospel of faith to single mothers, unwed fathers, substance abusers, the homeless, and the imprisoned. A companion mission is to delegate the delivery of social services from government agencies to proponents of faith. Announcing this two-birds-in-the-bush plan to strengthen governmental moralism and reduce government activity, President Bush has said: "When we see social needs in America, my administration will look first to faith based programs and community groups, which have proven their power to save and change lives." [1] The idea that religious organizations are better equipped than government to promote the social welfare was George W. Bush's signature issue during the 2000 presidential campaign. As governor of Texas, he had seized upon a 1996 statutory innovation called "charitable choice" that invited states to delegate welfare programs to religious groups. [2] He applied the charitable choice concept to state-funded programs, as well, such as the InterChange program that offered faith-based counseling to prison inmates and church-run anti-drug programs. During the presidential campaign, he called for federal funding for the Texas prison program and promised to revise laws to allow religious groups "to provide services in every federal, state, and local social program." [3] According to Bush advisor and former Christian Coalition director Ralph Reed, the charitable choice concept was the key to Bush's "compassionate conservatism," for it enabled him to take "the underlying message of traditional values and allowed it to b e presented in a nontraditional way that is caring and not judgmental." [4] According to another Bush advisor, Compassionate Conservatism author Marvin Olasky, by expanding social ministries charitable choice could also "decrease the need for government action." [5] Hardly noticed when first enacted, charitable choice was then-Senator John Ashcroft's principal contribution to the 1996 welfare reform law. Charitable choice requires states to permit religious groups to compete to administer welfare programs, including welfare-to-work programs and job training. Texas was one of only four states (the others being Wisconsin, Indiana, and Ohio) to aggressively implement the welfare law's charitable choice rule and one of only a handful of states to do so at all. [6] Although many states remain wary of the constitutional problems posed by charitable choice, President Bush is eager to expand the rule to include drug treatment programs, homeless programs, senior programs, housing, juvenile services, after-school programs, and sexual abstinence education. He also aims to deploy Americorps volunteers as an adjunct army, using federally trained manpower to boost faith-based work. [7] Federal support for the work of religious organizations is not new: Catholic Charities and Lutheran Social Services, for example, have long relied on federal assistance to operate homeless shelters and soup kitchens. …