Bush Opens Office for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, with John DiIulio at the Helm

Bush launches faith-based initiative As expected, President Bush on Monday unveiled what he calls the “most important initiatives” of his administration; namely, allowing religious organizations to receive government funds for social services. With executive orders, he established the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, and established centers at five federal agencies to encourage cooperation between government and charities. “It is one of the great goals of my administration to invigorate the spirit of involvement and citizenship, Bush said as he signed the orders. “We will encourage faith-based and community programs without changing their mission. We will help all in their work to change hearts while keeping a commitment to pluralism.” In the spirit of that pluralism, he said, “We will not fund the religious activities of any group, but when people of faith provide social services, we will not discriminate against them.” On Tuesday, he detailed more of his plans, which include tax changes to encourage more charitable giving, and new federal grants. He also outlined some of the rules and guidelines faith-based organizations must follow to receive federal funds. For example, a secular alternative must be available in a neighborhood if a faith-based program in the area is to get funds, and the money can’t be used to buy Bibles or crosses, or other uniquely religious items.

Bush named University of Pennsylvania social scientist John J. DiIulio Jr. as head of the White House office, and said DiIulio will report directly to him. The appointment was generally praised, particularly because DiIulio isn’t a typical White House denizen. “John J. DiIulio Jr. is going to get noticed around the White House,” notes The Boston Globe, which calls him a “large man with a salty vocabulary and an Ivy League intellect.” (Add to that description The Philadelphia Inquirer‘s note that he’s “a self-described new Democrat and ‘card-carrying Catholic’.”) “Friend and colleague” E.J. Dionne Jr. adds to the praise in his Washington Post column. “DiIulio is not one of those policy entrepreneurs who thinks his favorite idea can cure everything that ails us,” he writes. “On the contrary, he thinks the faith-based approach will work only if debated honestly and evaluated carefully.” Perhaps the most effusive is the New York Post‘s John Podhoretz: “To say DiIulio is an inspired choice, and that Bush is lucky to have him, understates the case.” But as Chuck Babington notes in The Washington Post, “he also has numerous detractors who say his predictions of waves of ‘juvenile superpredators’ have proven to be overheated and overstated.” The Chicago Tribune goes into more detail on those detractors. Christianity Today sent senior writer Tim Stafford to profile DiIulio for our June 14, 1999, issue.

Reaction from religious leaders was expectedly mixed, but not necessarily from the voices one might expect. Democrat-leaning evangelicals are busy praising the initiative, while the more conservative are wary. “The real issue here is not a church-state controversy,” Jim Wallis tells the Los Angeles Times. “The real issue is developing the political will to overcome poverty and to rebuild shattered lives and neighborhoods. Creating partnerships that respect the pluralism of America and that honor the First Amendment does not mean separating faith from public life.” Ron Sider has a positive op-ed piece in The Boston Globe, in which he writes, “Surely the most open, objective … approach would be to test a wide variety of strategies for a decade or two.” And Eugene Rivers, who gave the benediction at last year’s Democratic National Convention tells The (Newark) Star-Ledger the plans are “one of the most promising opportunities black churches have had in the last 30 years.” On the other hand, Pat Robertson tells CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that though he’s generally positive on Bush’s plans, he’s concerned about “intrusion into the faith-based groups by federal agencies and federal rules.” Charles Colson (one of several attendees at the signing of Bush’s executive order, as was Rivers) promises The Star-Ledger, “Evangelicals are going to come around—they’ll see this is the wave of the future.”

More coverage of Bush’s new initiative:

High court likely will be forced to decide church-state boundary (Los Angeles Times)
Churches confused by Bush plan | Across the state, few understand ‘charitable choice’ programs (San Francisco Chronicle)
Bush proposal sparks ‘fears’ | Groups wary of any funding rules (USA Today)
Bush opens faith-based aid effort | Religious groups, charities would get access to U.S. funds; ‘Called by conscience’; Plan raises questions over separation of church and state (The [Baltimore] Sun)
Bush enlists faith groups | New office to help fund ‘armies of compassion’ (Houston Chronicle)
Bush embraces evangelical agenda (The Guardian, London)
Bush puts faith-based organisations at centre of policy (The Telegraph, London)
Concern at Bush’s ‘faith-based’ plan (The Jerusalem Post)
Bush signs order opening ‘faith-based’ charity office for business (CNN)
God and government | Bush pushes faith-based programs (ABCNews.com)
Bush unveils religious-based plan (Associated Press)
Bush boosts faith-based charities (Boston Herald)
Most congregations providing services (The Washington Times)
Former mayor Goldsmith will advise ‘faith-based initiative’ (The Indianapolis Star)
Faith is base of job-aid project | Capital program uses Bush approach (The Sacramento Bee)
Faith-based program helps buyers get loans | Program demonstrates role churches can play in strengthening communities. (Houston Chronicle)

More opinion on the proposal:

Faith-based services | Bush’s ambitious proposal is a potentially dangerous erosion of the boundary between church and state (Editorial, The New York Times)
A leap for faith | Bush must maintain his tone of careful moderation. (Editorial, The Washington Post)
The amen corner | Secular fundamentalists howl about Bush’s faith-based initiative (Editorial, The Wall Street Journal)
Church,state and money | The new White House office must insist on common standards, ban discrimination and ensure that a wide range of groups be represented. (Editorial, Los Angeles Times)
Bush’s boost for religious charities raises caution flags (Editorial, USA Today)
Bush’s faith in faith | The biggest issue is privatization, not the religious affiliations of the people who deliver help. (Editorial, Chicago Tribune)
Having faith in the faithful | What the president proposes can work. (Editorial, New York Post)
Faith-based services can be constitutional | Knee-jerk opposition is wrong (Editorial, Boston Herald)
Don’t be too quick to judge (Stephen Lazarus, USA Today)
Faith-based successes | Faith-based programs have genuine, scientific value in dealing with alcohol and, by extension, drug problems (Paul J. Steinberg, The Washington Post)
A little help from above | What faith-based programs can do (and what they can’t). (Stephen Goldsmith, The Wall Street Journal)
Faith succeeds where prison fails | President Bush’s faith-based social services initiative offers hope that rehabilitation may be restored as a politically acceptable response to crime (David Cole, The New York Times)
Funding faith-based charities a wise idea (Joe Fitzgerald, Boston Herald)
Poverty 2001: Searching for America’s heart (Arianna Huffington)

Bush’s other policies:

Hand on the Bible, eyes on the polls | Is this what America wants, the morality President? (Gay Alcorn, The [Melbourne, Australia] Age)
Bush wins by putting his faith in God (Andrew Sullivan, The Sunday Times, London)
Bush urged to champion human rights | Conservatives call on president to promote democracy, freedom in foreign policy (The Washington Post)
In first radio address, Bush softens on school vouchers (The New York Times)

The Bushes at church:

Dubya shopping for a church (Capitol Hill Blue)
Standing ovations for W. at black church in capital (New York Daily News)
Bushes get a warm welcome from Methodist church in NE (The Washington Post)
Bushes attend largely black church (Associated Press)
Bush sings and claps as he worships at black church (Reuters)
D.C. churches reach out to Bushes (Associated Press)
Where presidents attended church (Associated Press)

Inaugural prayer still provoking debate:

Debating the wisdom of invoking Jesus at inauguration (The Boston Globe)
God’s place on the dais | Use of ‘Jesus’ in inaugural prayers breeds some worry (The Washington Post)
Bush’s inaugural address, and Jeff Greenfield’s reaction | What struck me most about Bush’s inaugural address was how deft were the very modest references to religion in it. (Don Wycliff, Chicago Tribune, second item)

More religion and politics: