Everything about Faith-based Initiatives totally explained
The
White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives (
OFBCI) is a department under the
Office of the President of the United States that was established by
President George W. Bush through
executive order on January 29, 2001, and which represents one of the key domestic policies of Bush's campaign promise of "
compassionate conservatism." The initiative seeks to strengthen
faith-based and community organizations and expand their capacity to provide federally-funded
social services, with the idea being that these groups are well-situated to meet the needs of local individuals. As Texas governor Bush had used the "Charitable Choice" provisions of the
1996 welfare reform (which allowed "faith-based" entities to compete for
government contracts to deliver social services) to support faith-based groups in
Texas.
The office was briefly led by
Don Willett, an aide from Bush's tenure as
governor of Texas. (Willett is now a justice on the
Supreme Court of Texas). The first person named as director of the OFBCI was
John DiIulio, a
University of Pennsylvania political science professor. (DiIulio later left the office and became a critic of the
Bush administration).
Critics of the OFBCI, including
Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the
American Civil Liberties Union, assert that it violates the
Establishment Clause by using tax money to fund religion.
For
fiscal year 2005, more than $2.2 billion in competitive social service grants were awarded to faith-based organizations. Between fiscal years 2003 and 2005, the total dollar amount of all grants awarded to FBOs increased by 21 percent (GAO 2006:43). The majority of these grants were distributed through state agencies to local organizations in the form of formula grants (GAO 2006:17 In June, 2006, U.S. District Judge Robert W. Pratt ruled that a faith based-program at a Newton, Iowa prison called InnerChange, operated by Charles Colson's Prison Fellowship Ministries, unconstitutionally used tax money for a religious program that gave special privileges to inmates who accepted its evangelical Christian teachings and terms. “For all practical purposes," Judge Pratt said, "the state has literally established an Evangelical Christian congregation within the walls of one its penal institutions, giving the leaders of that congregation, for example, InnerChange employees, authority to control the spiritual, emotional, and physical lives of hundreds of Iowa inmates.” [See
Americans United v. Prison Fellowship Ministries, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 36970, June 2, 2006]
Some Americans have denounced the Faith-Based and Community Initiatives as a violation of the separation of church and state. Citing President Bush being a devout
Independent Methodist, some opponents have labeled it a
de facto Department of Faith.
Others have noted that millions in government grants have gone to ministries operated by political supporters of the Bush administration, or have been given to minority pastors who recently committed their support. [See
The Washington Post, October 3, 2002, re Pat Robertson;
The New York Times, May 3, 2005, re Rev. Luis Cortez;David D. Kirkpatrick,
The New York Times, March 30, 2006, re Bishop Sedgwick Daniels;
Los Angeles Times, January 18, 2005, re Rev. Herb Lusk, Bishop Harold Ray and
Rev. Sun Myung Moon; PBS.org Bill Moyer’s Now transcript, September 26, 2004 re Faith Partners]
On
June 25, 2007, the
U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in
Hein v. Freedom From Religion Foundation that executive orders may not be challenged on
Establishment Clause grounds by individuals whose sole claim to legal standing is that they're taxpayers. Both of Bush's appointees sided with the majority.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Faith-based Initiatives'.
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