Bush wanted to fund social services whose key ingredient is faith, either in the program itself or as part of the treatment. Congress never signed off. So federal officials reached out to church groups and explained how to apply and win federal funding by keeping their services “faith neutral” or free of proselytizing.
And that’s the hitch. If a program promotes one faith to its clients, the government cannot fund it given the First Amendment ban on congressional “establishment of religion.” But if such a program sheds its religious character to qualify for public money, how important was that faith in the first place?
There is a solution. Addiction and mental-health programs can assess new clients for their spiritual and religious histories and interests and then tailor treatment accordingly. Courts have ruled that so long as a program offers a client “a genuinely independent choice,” religious freedom is preserved. In March, the federal Bureau of Prisons recognized this distinction when it revised a proposal for private operators of “life skills” training programs. Those that offer a religious track would now have to provide a secular one as well.
[blockquote] Courts have ruled that so long as a program offers a client “a genuinely independent choice,” [/blockquote]
By definition, just what an addict lacks.
But if the capacity for choice is present, picking a faith-back treatment program in the first place is the exercise of that choice.
The whole faith-based initiatives idea was full of problems from the get go. Christian ministries need to raise their own funds and avoid the entanglements of Government funding, the looney courts, etc.
An interesting case here in north Florida, a woman who runs a faith-based literacy program is suing the state for refusing to pay her company for her services:
[url=http://www.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007708050318]Woman sues state after federal inquiry[/url]
[blockquote]
Article published Aug 5, 2007
By Bill Cotterell
FLORIDA CAPITAL BUREAU POLITICAL EDITOR
A Jackson County woman who ran an adult-literacy program is suing the state, claiming that her business was ruined by a federal investigation sparked by a ”rank hatred and hostility” toward faith-based programs in the Department of Education.
”You cannot imagine the financial, emotional and physical toll on me and my family,” Kay Stripling said of an FBI inquiry into funding of Florida Read & Lead Inc. ”It was mind-numbing fear.”
Read & Lead conducted classes in rural communities to help dropouts and illiterate adults earn general-equivalency degrees and find jobs. Stripling, an evangelical Christian who home-schooled her three children for 14 years, has a master’s degree from Troy State University in psychology and a doctorate in instructional design from North Carolina College of Theology at Wilmington, N.C.
Stripling’s suit, filed in Leon County Circuit Court in June against DOE and DFS, alleges that DOE ”made numerous false statements, both written and oral” to state and federal investigators about her company.
[i]’Rank hatred'[/i]
Stripling said she was inspired to start the company by President Bush’s appeal for religious people to ”help our most needy citizens.”
”Maybe the best way to say it is ‘compassion-based;’ this is a compassionate program,” she said in an interview. ”I accepted everybody at where they were. I did not beat anyone in the head with the Bible. I don’t care where people go to church – I don’t care if they do or don’t go to church.”
Stripling, 48, was never arrested or charged with any crime but said she suffered a nervous breakdown and was financially ruined before the FBI dropped the case. Her lawsuit accuses the department of breach of contract, negligent defamation and religious discrimination.
”Because of rank hatred and hostility of Christian involvement in our education system,” Stripling said, ”I was persecuted in the most heinous fashion.”
She said DOE awarded her company a $200,000 grant in 2002 and paid her ”solely upon the submission of invoices describing the performance levels” of people receiving help. But in the second year of the operation, Stripling’s suit said the department refused to pay two invoices totaling about $201,000 although it acknowledged that ”Read & Lead met all performance goals under the contract.”[/blockquote]
There’s more at the site.
Jim Elliott <><