Posted on January 5, 2003

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The Year in Review: Bush Administration Pushes Ahead with Faith-Based Initiative

As the year opened, the president's faith-based initiative, a signature theme of candidate Bush's campaign, looked to be headed for oblivion. Although a stripped-down version of the president's plan had passed the House in the summer of 2001, the legislation stalled in a Senate evenly divided along party lines and was all but forgotten in the aftermath of September 11.

Then, in January, a Wisconsin judge ruled that state funding for a drug and alcohol addiction program that incorporated Christian spirituality into its approach to treatment amounted to government sponsorship of religion and ordered the funding to be stopped. "I think this decision is a warning sign," said Charles C. Haynes, a scholar at the Freedom Forum First Amendment Center, "that we need to have clearer guidelines about government aid to religious groups."

Those guidelines proved to be elusive. In January, a group of civil libertarians, lawyers, and religious leaders charged with finding common ground on the issue of government support for faith-based groups were unable to reach consensus on a number of issues, including the question of whether groups that considered religious beliefs in their hiring practices should be eligible for federal grants.

Undeterred, President Bush in February named James Towey, an advocate for the aging and a former Secretary of Health for the State of Florida, to replace University of Pennsylvania academic John DiIulio as director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives (FBCI).

In retrospect, Towey's appointment seemed to signal renewed interest in and a new approach to the president's initiative on the part of the administration. In June, the Department of Health and Human Services announced a $30 million fund designed to make it easier for faith-based and grassroots organizations to access technical assistance, develop and train staff, and expand the reach of their programs into the community. A month later, the Department of Labor announced the first of three rounds of grants intended to link these same organizations to the department's One-Stop Career System network. And by the end of July, five federal cabinet agencies had created Faith-Based and Community Initiative Centers to support the work of grassroots and faith-based organizations in communities across the country.

News reports in September that those same five cabinet agencies were rewriting program guidelines to make it easier for faith-based groups to qualify for federal funding was followed in December by an executive order directing federal agencies to take steps to ensure that their policies "are consistent with equal treatment principles" and "that no organization will be discriminated against based on religion, and that no beneficiary of federally funded social services may be discriminated against based on religion."

Responding preemptively to charges by civil libertarians that the president's actions were certain to erode the constitutional separation between church and state, FBCI director Towey said, "The wall [President Bush] wants to tear down is the wall that separates the poor from effective programs. He opposes the funding of religion — always has. This initiative is about better care for the poor."

Related news:

Judge Orders Wisconsin to Stop Funding Faith-Based Program (1/12/02)

Group Issues Recommendations for Faith-Based Initiative (1/18/02)

HHS Announces $30 Million Fund to Assist Faith-Based and Community Organizations (6/22/02)

Department of Labor Announces First Round of Grants to Faith-Based Organizations (7/06/02)

Cabinet Agencies Rewriting Rules for Funding Faith-Based Groups (9/05/02)

Faith-Based Legislation May Reach Senate Floor Soon (9/13/02)

Federal Faith-Based Fund Awards $25 Million in Grants (10/04/02)

President Issues Executive Order on Faith-Based Initiative (12/13/02)