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White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships

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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. The Office was briefly shepherded by Don Willett, an aide from Bush's administration 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 Dilulio, a Pennsylvania academic with a first-rate reputation in social sciences. Dilulio, a Democrat, was drawn to support George W. Bush in the 2000 presidential campaign because of Bush's support for faith-based entities in Texas. Bush had been the governor most enthusiastic about implementing the provisions of the "Charitable Choice" provisions of the 1996 Welfare Reform Act. Those provisions allowed "faith-based" entities to compete for government contracts to deliver social services without sacrificing their religious character. Dilulio served approximately six months, resigning after issuing a report, entitled "An Unlevel Playing Field," which argued that faith-based entities were often excluded from consideration for such contracts even where no constitutional impediments existed.


For fiscal year 2005, more than $2.1 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[1]). The majority of these grants were distributed through state agencies to local organizations in the form of formula grants (GAO 2006:17[1]).

Safeguards on faith-based organizations

Faith-based organizations are eligible to participate in federally administered social service programs to the same degree as any other group, although certain restrictions on FBOs that accept government funding have been created by the White House to protect the concept of separation of church and state.

  • They may not use direct government funds to support inherently religious activities such as prayer, worship, religious instruction, or proselytization.
  • Any inherently religious activities that the organizations may offer must be offered separately in time or location from services that receive federal assistance.
  • FBOs cannot discriminate on the basis of religion when providing services (GAO 2006:13[1]).

Controversy

The separation of church and state may be increasingly difficult to protect, since few federal agencies are monitoring faith-based organizations for compliance with the safeguards, according to a June 2006 report from the Government Accountability Office. Four of the major federal agencies refuse to include references to the safeguards in their monitoring tools, and have stated that FBOs should not be singled out for greater oversight on the basis of their religious affiliations (GAO 2006:29,55[1]). Former director Jim Towey admitted in 2004 that "no direct federal grants from his program had gone to a non-Christian religious group." [2] 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, i.e., 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 civil libertarians and secularists have denounced the Faith-Based and Community Initiatives as a violation of the separation of church and state, a concept protected in the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. Citing President Bush being a devout Christian, 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 Sun Yung Moon; PBS.org Bill Moyer’s Now transcript, September 26, 2004 re Faith Partners]

On February 28, 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in Hein v. Freedom from Religion Foundation on whether taxpayers can file suit regarding the use of government funds by the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. The debate is meant to determine the validity of bringing such lawsuits, not the validity of the Office.

References

  1. ^ a b c d "Faith-Based and Community Initiative: Improvements in Monitoring Grantees and Measuring Performance Could Enhance Accountability" (PDF). United States Government Accountability Office (GAO). June 2006. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  2. ^ BuzzFlash. "Esther Kaplan's Take on the Born-Again White House". Oct. 29, 2004

See also

Books

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