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NAE's Cizik agrees. "Proclaiming the death of faith-based services purely based on H.R. 7 is nonsense," he said. "There are avenues of change available to us beyond this one piece of legislation."

He said the Bush administration's faith-based push is a three-pronged attack of education of the public, empowerment of individual agencies, and, "only lastly," the H.R. 7 legislation.

The next steps
While not doomed, the legislation's future is unpredictable, Cizik said. "It is clearly in the category of 'to be determined,'" he said. "The trick is to get something the president should sign and not just could. It is better to have no bill than a bad bill. It will take evangelical support to make sure the bill passed is to our liking."

Discussion is key, Cizik said. "I think the public can be educated on why a hiring exemption is important," he said. "A full and fair debate and a Senate bill with the exemption is what we need, but it is not certain."

ESA's Sider (who recently wrote on social-service providers in Christianity Today) agrees that communication between opposing sides is integral. "It has got to be clear for the Democrats that this is not just moving money from agency to agency but is increasing efforts to empower the poor," Sider said.

Part of this discussion is happening now, Sider told Christianity Today this week, in work groups organized by Sen. Rick Santorum (R. Pa.).

While observers point to the roles Santorum and Lieberman will play, Cizik and Sider feel the future of faith-based legisaltion also comes down to Bush's dedication. Sider said an important move for the White House now is to reiterate continued support.

"A lot depends on what Bush will decide is fair and just and compromises he is willing to make. The liberal media would say the bill is [dead on arrival] in the Senate but I wouldn't say that's true," Cizik told Christianity Today. "H.R. 7 has had more than one near-death expereince, and probably will again before it passes."

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September (Web-only) 2001, Vol. 45