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Advocacy Blog
Friday, February 01, 2008
President Requests Permanent Extension of Charitable Choice
In his final State of the Union speech, President George W. Bush called on Congress "to permanently extend Charitable Choice;" provisions in a number of federal laws that require states to include faith-based organizations among the service providers whenever they offer the same contracts to other private, nonprofits.
The following night Bush visited the Jericho Program, a religious provider of services to ex-offenders. While there he commented that it was a mistake to oppose the government support of religious groups. "There was the notion that somehow that there needed to be a clear separation of church and state, and therefore, we shouldn't be using taxpayers' money to help programs that were helping to meet important national goals."
Many criticize Bush's efforts for either not doing enough to religious nonprofits or for crossing the line between church and state in using tax dollars to promote religion. And since the creation of the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, grants have not been more available to religious nonprofit organizations. This was reiterated in a New York Times Op-ed written by two former employees of the office. "Over the past six years, federal grants to faith-based programs have shifted away from the local 'armies of compassion' praised by Mr. Bush and toward large, national organizations with religious affiliations."
Instead, to ensure that the separation of church and state is upheld, federal dollars must be used for purposes other than proselytizing. In addition, there are many underlying problems. Regardless what type of service providers receive federal funding, the government must sufficiently invest in domestic policies.
Posted by Amanda Adams
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