Using Tax Dollars for Churches
"The faith-based initiative is also unconstitutional,
and fundamentally unfair, because it allows tax
dollars to be used in programs that discriminate
in hiring. "
The New York Times
Editorial
December 30, 2002
President Bush punched a dangerous hole in the wall
between church and state earlier this month by signing
an executive order that eases the way for religious groups
to receive federal funds to run social services programs.
The president's unilateral order, which wrongly cut
Congress out of the loop, lets faith-based
organizations use tax dollars to win converts
and gives them a green light to discriminate in
employment. It should be struck down by the courts.
The Bush administration's faith-based initiative
has long been high on the wish list of religious
conservatives. It allows churches, synagogues,
mosques and other religious entities to qualify
for tax dollars to finance programs for the poor
and emergency relief, and it lets them provide those
services in an expressly, even coercively, religious setting.
While the initiative in theory bars federal subsidies
for religious activities themselves, it clearly permits praying,
proselytizing, religious counseling and other sectarian activities
to be part of a program receiving federal funds.
President Bush's initiative runs counter to decades
of First Amendment law, which holds that government
dollars cannot be used to promote religion. The White House
claims money will not be used to directly support religious
activities. But by financing religious people who provide social
services in a way that includes religion, the program will be
doing just that.
The faith-based initiative is also unconstitutional,
and fundamentally unfair, because it allows tax
dollars to be used in programs that discriminate
in hiring. Churches will be able to hire only Christians
for jobs paid for with federal funds, and synagogues
and mosques could similarly refuse to
hire nonbelievers. And taxpayer-financed religious
programs can, by citing their religious beliefs, refuse
to hire gay men and lesbians.
We are already starting to see the troubling ways
in which faith-based initiatives allow tax dollars
to be used. In Georgia, a Jewish man is suing
the United Methodist Children's Home, which
receives significant federal financing, for refusing
to hire him as a therapist because of his religion.
In Wisconsin, a federal judge earlier this year
ordered a prison program to stop using direct
government funds for a drug and alcohol addiction
program that used Christian spirituality as part
of its treatment.
It is ironic that President Bush is working
to tear down the separation of church and state
at home, given the battles he is waging abroad. It is
clearer today than ever that one of America's greatest
strengths is that we are a nation in which people are
free to practice any faith or no faith, and the government
keeps out of the religious realm. This is a tradition
that has served America well since its founding.
There is no reason to tamper with it now.
By putting his faith-based initiative into effect
as an executive order, President Bush did an
end run around Congress, where it was facing
significant opposition. But the judiciary will not
be as easy to avoid. When the order faces a
constitutional challenge, as it inevitably will, the courts
must not hesitate to rule it unconstitutional.
nytimes.com
Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company |
