The Rise of the Religious Right in the Republican Party

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Faith Base Initiative

Last update September 26, 2003

Funding faith based charities shifts responsibility for welfare from government social service agencies to church institutions and raises serious questions about church state separation. On September 22, 2003, the White House announced new rules making $28 billion available to religious charities that discriminate in hiring, Click Here.

Americans United for Separation of Church and State has been following this issue closely since Bush became President. They have filed lawsuits, and their magazine, Church and State, has many wonderful, in-depth articles. Church and State, September, 2003, documents the many federal programs that are loosing money to religious charities. Click Here.

"On Dec. 12, speaking to over 1,000 religious and charitable leaders gathered at the Downtown Marriott Hotel in Philadelphia, George W. Bush launched another major offensive in his drive to implement his controversial “faith-based” initiative. Circumventing a reluctant Congress, which has refused to enact the administration’s scheme, Bush announced a sweeping package of executive actions to encourage churches and other religious groups to apply for billions in government contracts to help the disadvantaged." This comes from "Faith Based Fiat," January, 2003, Click Here.

"Not willing to let a skeptical Congress delay its plan for government-funded religion, the Bush administration is moving ahead with the faith-based initiative anyway. "Church and State, October, 2002, "Faith Based Foray," Click Here.

"Faith Based Victory," Church and State, May, 2003, brings good news! A powerful coalition formed in the U.S. Senate to derail President Bush and U.S. Senator Rick Santorum's efforts to pass legislation making it legal to discriminate in employment. As a result, the final legislation is nothing like the Bush/Santorum plan. Click Here.

"The Bush ‘Faith-Based’ Orders: Dangerous Decrees On Dec. 12, President George W. Bush issued two executive orders putting into place his controversial “faith-based” initiative, February, 2003. Click Here.

Church and State, November, 2002, discusses the grant to Pat Robertson's charity. Click Here.

"Faith Base Failure," Church and State, November, 2002, highlights a report documenting major problems with the Faith Based program that has been implemented in Texas for the past five years. Click Here.

Comapassion Conservatism

Marvin Olasky, a Reconstructionist influenced professor of Journalism, has served as a close advisor to Bush. Olasky's book, Compassionate Conservatism, creates a justification for Bush's policies on faith based giving. Bush wrote the forward to the book published in 2000. Olasky is a compelling writer who shares his philosophical ideas through heart-wrenching and inspiring human interest stories. He makes a strong case for faith based giving. Evangelical Christian charities succeed, according to Olasky, where government fails.

Olasky sees no problem with government funds going to missions that proselytize. The fact that someone who is hungry and vulnerable might have to undergo a religious conversion to get food and shelter doesn't bother him.

The Problem with Proselytizing

Bill Moyers program, NOW, (the first of a two-part series) aired on PBS September 26, 2003, makes clear the problem with proselytizing. The TV show focuses on one program that trains church volunteers to help lift people out of poverty. At first, the whole consept looked truly wonderful. A volunteer family infuses a young, struggling mother of three with love and a sense of caring -- which is very moving. Then the pressure begins to join their church. This "loving" family is all the support this young mother has in the world, and she feels deeply conflicted about joining their church. When she was asked by the interviewer about joining the church, her face froze in what looked like silent terror. She hadn't wanted to join, but appeared to be terrified of losing the love and support of her sponsoring family.

The sponsoring family told the interviewer that they're taught not to invite the family to their church for the first month, and that they never told the woman that she has to join. But it's clear that the invitations to go to church will not let up. The TV show ends leaving us waiting for two weeks to find out what happens, but that look of frozen terror on the young woman's face illustrated dramatically the dangers of government funding for church sponsored charities.

The Civil Rights Act, 1964

There are some basic problems with Olasky's ideas. One is the Civil Rights Act, signed in 1964, which bans discrimination in employment on the basis of race, gender, or religion. But religious charities that the Bush administration wants to fund don’t want to be forced to hire people of other religions, and especially don’t want to hire gays or lesbians. This presents a real dilemma for the president.

The Washington Post reported back in July, 2001 that the Bush administration made a deal with the Salvation Army. The Salvation Army would spend upwards of $110,000 per month to lobby for Bush’s faith Based Initiative, and the White House would give a the Salvation Army a “firm commitment” allowing greater freedom in discrimination against gays in employment.

In 2002 when Bush couldn’t get what he wanted from Congress, he simply acted without their approval. He dispersed a $30 million Compassion Capital Fund through seven government agencies. This fund was intended by Congress to give technical support to charities, but Bush used it to fund religious organizations. He issued executive orders that would allow discrimination in hiring, allow proselytizing, and allow tax payer dollars to be used to build churches.

An article by New York Times columnist Paul Krugman (12/17/02), discusses a move by the Bush administration to enable agencies that receive government funding to discriminate. Click Here

Senator Rick Santorum vowed to actually rewrite the anti-discrimination laws. There’s a difference between executive orders and changing the law. Executive orders can be changed by the next president, but laws are lasting. Senator Santorum and President Bush have been trying to change anti-discrimination laws through Congress for religious charities, but they failed, and this is an important and little known success story.

After haggling with the Senate for two years, the CARE Act was finally passed. It allows taxpayers who do not itemize tax deductions to write off a portion of their charitable donations for two years. It is vastly different from the Bush/Santorum plan. The Bush/Santorum plan was stopped by effective organizing. Americans United for Separation of Church and State helped form the Coalition Against Religious Discrimination or (CARD).

This coalition brought together fifty two religious, public policy and educational organizations. Members include the Unitarian Universalist Association, the Interfaith Alliance, the NAACP, American Jewish Committee, American Jewish Congress, the National Education Association, The National Association of Social Workers, The American Academy of Pediatrics, American Baptist Churches and the Rabbinical Assembly. For a full list of the 52 organizations, go to stopreligiousdiscrimination.org. The CARD coalition is a good example of effective grassroots organizing.

Political Manipulation

Another problem with Bush's program is the potential for political manipulation as was revealed when the Republican Party campaigned to bring traditionally Democratic constituencies into its fold in the 2002 elections. U.S. Rep. Anne M. Northup (R-Ky.) created a non-profit organization to steer federal money to religious groups in order to boost her political strength in the African-American community. Rep. Northup was never popular in the black community before.

Now her non-profit, Louisville Neighborhood Initiative Inc., (LNI) doles out federal money to poor, mostly minority neighborhoods. "I can't paint a clearer picture," said the Rev. C. Mackey Daniels, pastor of West Chestnut Baptist Church. "The support was given in order to get votes." U.S. Rep. Robert Ehrlich in his bid for governor of Maryland promised to use money from Bush's faith-based initiative to build support in African-American churches.