October 7,
2000
Column #997
"CHARITABLE CHOICE"
HOUSTON -- Should churches,
synagogues and mosques be given a major role by government in helping people
to break free of welfare, drugs and crime?
Some say there should be a total
separation of church and state. In fact, in 1995 Texas state agencies tried
to shut down two highly successful faith-based drug treatment programs,
Victory Fellowship and Teen Challenge because neither offered medical
treatment to addicts, but only Bible study and prayer. One study showed that
Teen Challenge was 86 percent successful because it changed the hearts of
its clients. Though that cure rate was far above that of more traditional
medical-model programs, state officials tried to shut both programs down for
operating without licenses for medical care.
Newly-elected Gov. Bush overruled
the bureaucrats and later signed a nationally unprecedented executive order
in 1996 allowing faith-based organizations to compete for state contracts to
provide welfare services while maintaining their ''unique ecclesiastical
nature.'' In the past, day care centers in churches had to take down
religious symbols, such as crosses.
He created a faith-based task force
to look into ways government could encourage houses of worship to offer
child care, job training and other social services without jeopardizing
their religious missions. The result: laws were passed in 1997 by the
Legislature exempting all faith-based alcohol and drug treatment programs
and church day care from usual state rules. Prison Fellowship was given a
contract to run one wing of a prison which has been so successful in
rehabilitating inmates that Oklahoma and Iowa have created similar Christian
prisons.
Gov. Bush says, ''Government can
hand out money, but it cannot put hope in our hearts or a sense of purpose
in our lives. It can not bring peace of mind. It cannot fill the spiritual
well from which we draw strength from day to day. Only faith can do that. In
the final analysis, there is no overcoming of anything without faith be it
drugs, or alcohol or poverty or selfishness or flawed social policy.''
The task of helping welfare
recipients to find jobs has traditionally been left up to county employees.
But many inner city churches are known and trusted by the poor. Therefore, a
group called ''Family Pathfinders'' has identified 122 churches which
recruited volunteers who have worked with nearly 500 mothers on welfare,
four-fifths of whom have become self-sufficient. The staff which matches
volunteers with the clients is paid with government funds. Some 565 nursing
homes have been ''adopted'' by 1,327 faith-based organizations.
The Texas Department of Human
Services reports that 57,159 volunteers have donated 500,000 hours of time.
Similarly, the Texas Workforce Commission is working with 350 faith-based
groups such as Lutheran Social Services and Catholic Charities, who in turn
involve hundreds of churches. A single Houston umbrella group, Interfaith of
the Woodlands, has received $11 million of contracts to help welfare moms
find jobs.
Indeed, the federal welfare reform
legislation has a section called ''Charitable Choice'' which requires states
receiving federal funds to take similar steps. But according to the Center
for Public Justice, a non-partisan Christian research agency, 40 states
''are ignoring Charitable Choice rules'' and received an F on a ''Report
Card'' published last week, including such states as New York, Alabama,
Florida, Connecticut, Washington and South Dakota.
Only Texas earned an A+ for the
nation's ''most aggressive compliance with Charitable Choice.'' Indiana,
Ohio and Wisconsin received an A, while Illinois and Pennsylvania. got B's.
Stanley Carson-Thies, who directed
the study, noted that California recently allowed faith-based organizations
to compete for $5 million of employment contracts, as long as they were not
''pervasively sectarian.'' He said, ''That's as if churches were told, `We
welcome you, but don't be too religious.' New Hampshire said all of its
providers have to be `totally secular.'''
Charitable Choice opens a new world
for churches. ''If we are honest, we have been busy doing many good things
but are not changing many things,'' said Amy Sherman of the Hudson
Institute, speaking in Houston at America's first state-wide Faith In Action
conference. ''We are trapped in a commodity-based model, writing checks for
those in trouble.
''This is insufficient. We need to
go further. The Good Samaritan did not just toss tracts and Bible messages
at the wounded traveler, but got personally involved. True mercy is not at
arm's length. Mercy is a voluntary sorrow that joins itself with the
suffering of another.''
Copyright 2000 Michael J. McManus. |
|
Since 1981...
2000+ Columns |
|
CURRENT ARTICLE |
|
Febrary 9,
2022: Column 2113: My Farewell Column: Happy Valentine's Week |
|
Recent Columns |
|
Writing Columns About
Marriage |
|
Will Abortion Be Made Illegal? |
|
Restore Voting Rights to Ex-Felons |
|
Progress in Black-White Relations |
|
Marriage Is
Disappearing |
|
Catholic Priest Celibacy Should Be Optional |
|
Blacks Must Consider Marriage |
|
The Need to End Catholic Priest Celibacy |
|
More Lessons For Life |
|
Lessons For Life |
|
Rebuilding Marriage in America |
|
How To Reduce Drunk Driving Deaths |
|
The Value of Couples Praying Together |
|
A Case for Pro-Life
|
|
End
The Death Penalty? |
|
Christian Choices Matter |
|
The Biblical Sexual Standard |
|
The Addictive Nature of Pornography |
|
Protecting Girls from Suicide |
|
The Worst Valentine:
Cohabitation |
|
Pornography: A Public Health Hazard |
|
Sextortion Kills Teens |
|
Cohabitation: A Risky Business |
|
Recent Searches |
|
gun control,
euthanasia,
cohabitation,
sexting,
sextortion,
alcoholism,
prayer,
guns,
same sex marriage,
abortion,
depression,
islam,
divorce,
polygamy,
religious liberty,
health care,
pornography,
teen sex,
abortion and infanticide,
Roe+v+Wade,
supreme court,
marriage,
movies,
violence,
celibacy,
living+together,
cohabitation,
ethics+and+religion,
pornography,
adultery,
divorce,
saving+marriages |
|