Battle over faith-based initiative rages

The battle over President Bush's faith-based initiative continues, with supporters shouting "amen" and opponents muttering "no way."

As Linda Hilton, director of Salt Lake's Coalition of Religious Communities, puts it: "Anytime you bring religion into anything, especially if it has to do with federal money, it gets emotional."

The faith-based initiative seeks to help "faith-based organizations" (the clunky but politically correct term for churches, mosques, synagogues, etc.) get government contracts and grants to help them provide social services for the nation's needy. Proponents say that faith-based organizations sometimes do a better job of addressing those needs. Opponents see the effort as unconstitutional — a breach of the "establishment of religion" clause of the First Amendment — and a diversion of scarce funds from secular programs that already work.

Meanwhile, as the debate continues — most recently in Congress, where key faith-based provisions were dropped from a charitable-giving bill — elements of the faith-based initiative are quietly moving forward.

In Utah, a federally funded liaison is helping Utah faith-based groups start new programs and hook up with funding sources. The "faith-based liaison for charitable choice" in Utah was established last summer at the request of Gov. Mike Leavitt and was awarded to Utah Issues, the state's well-known poverty research and action center, which named the program "Faith and Community Works." The liaison is working with about 20 faith-based groups that want to provide food pantries, halfway houses and other social services.

The idea that a government-funded group is helping religious organizations apply for government funds upsets Atheists of Utah, which is considering an investigation of those church social services receiving funds, says president Charles Johnson. It would be easy to "infiltrate their activities with miniature video and audio recorders" to root out "illegal activities," he says. What worries Johnson is that churches getting taxpayer money might be using that money not just to run a food pantry or a drug-treatment program but to preach and convert.

"As they say," notes Johnson, "the devil is in the details."