Catch22

PHILADELPHIA -- After eight years in prison, Joseph FFabio lives in a halfway house where he has learned to steer clear of drugs and contain the anger that earned him a murder sentence at age 18. His three months in the program have been "a blessing," Fabio said, except that the kitchen served only vegetarian food. When told that was because the halfway house is affiliated with the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, better known as the Hare Krishnas, Fabio replied, "They're around still?" For almost 20 years, Hare Krishna devotees in Philadelphia have received millions of dollars in government contracts to run a network of services, including the halfway house for parolees. The unusual collaboration between government agencies and a religious group that depicts God as a baby-faced boy with blue skin offers a glimpse of the challenges ahead for President Bush's initiative to expand government support for religious social-service programs. Keith Patterson, a house supervisor who keeps track of the parolees leaving for work, said the Krishna-sponsored program is totally secular. He contrasted it with the government-financed Salvation Army program where he used to work. "There were chapel services every Sunday," Patterson said, and residents were required to attend daily devotions. "They were trying to get you back to God." Bush's new Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives officially opens for business today. The president says religious programs will not be judged on their beliefs but on the results of their work.

The president's assertion may be questioned in the coming days. Although established charitable programs, such as those run by Catholic Charities and the Salvation Army, are expected to have little trouble winning further government support, the smaller programs run by less traditional faiths are likely to test the president's promise to avoid discriminating on the basis of belief and the public's acceptance of his approach. The initiative also runs the risk of sparking conflict. Already, one group has tried to prevent another from being allowed to participate. Bush signed the executive orders launching his initiative flanked by a score of Christian ministers, two Jewish leaders and a Muslim imam, and hailed the event as a "picture of the strength and diversity" of the country. But if the religious portrait of the nation is a great stained glass window, those leaders represent only a few large pieces of glass. Now, members of a variety of religious groups, some once considered far outside the mainstream, are busy preparing proposals for government financing to support the kinds of programs that Bush has said he will make his focus: literacy, sexual abstinence and substance-abuse treatment. The Church of Scientology plans to seek support for its drug rehabilitation and literacy programs. The church of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, now called the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification U.S.A., plans to promote its abstinence programs in the schools.

"One of the big issues that people haven't talked about much is that some very controversial religions could get active in this," said Philip Jenkins, the author of "Mystics and Messiahs: Cults and New Religions in American History" and a professor of history and religious studies at Penn State University. "Running a faith-based program raises the question, what faiths are out of bounds?" Jenkins said. "Either you fund all faith groups, even groups you radically don't like, or you fund none. . . . How do you distinguish between a Methodist and a Moonie? The answer is, you can't." There are a few clues to how the Bush administration will look on proposals from religious groups that seem out of the mainstream. In an interview with The New York Times during the campaign, Bush was asked whether, for example, he would approve of government financing for a Church of Scientology anti-drug program. He answered: "I have a problem with the teachings of Scientology being viewed on the same par as Judaism or Christianity. That just happens to be a personal point of view. But I am interested in results. I am not focused on the process." For its part, the Church of Scientology, founded as "dianetics" in the 1950s by the science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, claims it can document the effectiveness of its literacy programs and its drug and prisoner rehabilitation programs, Narconon and Criminon.

The White House Office on Faith-Based and Community Initiatives already has come under pressure from one religious group to deny government contracts to another. In recent weeks, the Anti-Defamation League, a leading Jewish group, has lobbied behind the scenes for assurances that the Bush administration will not enter into partnerships with the Nation of Islam, whose leader, Louis Farrakhan, has a history of making anti-Semitic statements. `Anti-Defamation League leaders met Feb. 12 with John DiIulio, who is heading the president's program, and afterward said they left reassured that the president would not allow financing for the Nation of Islam's programs. Bush told the Austin American-Statesman during the campaign, "I don't see how we can allow public dollars to fund programs where spite and hate is the core of the message." The Nation of Islam did not respond to requests for interviews.

     Oxbows.com Commentary
     This web site does not make a practice of commenting on posted articles or featured bylines. However, with this
     precedent setting action from the Office of the President, i.e., "all inclusive", "ecumenical" "embracing" of many
     "religions", this proclamation runs directly in the face of John 14:6. The great fallen cultures of history have all had
     the philosophy to 'not be necessarily concerned with the means or the process for achieving their desired ends, but
     chose to just focus on the end-results (work product) ... thus, in one sense, the "ends do justify the means" in these
     type activities. Please, this is not an indictment of Pres. Geo. W. Bush or his efforts to bridge the gap between what
     we have always known as 'government programs' and faith-based service delivery alternatives.

     The Governor's - Texas Faith-Based Commission Report - was ostensively a plain vanilla panacea to address a
     cochleated set of highly vortexed issues involving Church and State autonomies, Constitutional prohibitions, chronic
     unaddressed human service needs, secular strongholds of exclusivity, and discussion of strategies to integrate tax
     funds into 'religious' community based service/delivery programs. The Catch22 for the Bush policy directive is one
     of instrinsic 'value conflicts' thrown up against extrinsic "sacred cows". Yes, there is great need to find ways and
     means to distribute the program responsibity for human service needs throughout the community delivery system.

     The truth of the matter is, if government (Federal, State, County, City) human service delivery systems were doing
     an acceptable job of providing high quality essential services to those in critical need ... then there would not really
     be a reason to consider plowing the field of human needs with an 'Ox yoked to a Donkey'.{Deu. 22:9-11} This
     Presidential directive is truly a 'mingled garment' and one that has the potential to breed much malcontent. Austin,
     Texas has experienced the consequences of mingling Far Eastern religions, cultic enclaves, new-age paganism,
     academic enlightened humanism, and traditional Christianity. The results of this willful commingling is a greatly
     "divided spiritual city"{Matt. 12:25}. The road to dark places is often paved with good intentions, and that which
      begins as "charitable", "righteous" and "greatly needed" oft times can become your greatest nemesis. Let govern-
      ment do its 'thing' and make it accountable or privatize the faction in question. Privatizing is not the same thing as
      "ecumenicalizing" community based human services. Faith-based service options should consider forming them-
      selves under a Chapter 'C' designation and keep the 501-C3 as a separate entity. Yes the Church has been in the
      'business' of aiding distressed persons since its inception, yet not under the aegis of Federal Law, Congressional
      mandates and bureaucratic inspections via promulgated standards. Then again, if you want the federal dollars you
      accept the Federal interference and accountability measures that come with that type marriage. Wise counsel is
      given in 1 Kings Chpt. 11 ... which admonishes the righteous to not commingle with foreign entities lest they will
      "turn away your hearts after their gods". The god of mammon is a cunning wolf first appearing in sheep's clothing.