What Should Obama's Priority be After Inauguration?

Recommend (16) Comments (50)

President-Elect Barack Obama will obviously have to spend much of his time dealing with the perilous state of the U.S. economy. Americans United for Separation of Church and State is happy to leave that one to the experts to sort out, but in between debating the wisdom of tax cuts and stimulus packages, there is one church-state issue we wish Obama would tackle early on: the faith-based initiative.

President George W. Bush announced this initiative as his first domestic policy proposal. The idea was to funnel tax funds to religious groups, which would use the money to combat all manner of social ills, such as alcohol and drug addiction, homelessness, poverty and unemployment.

Congress balked, but that didn’t stop Bush. He implemented much of the plan anyway, using executive orders and regulatory changes. Eight years have passed, and the faith-based initiative has been nothing short of a disaster. Obama should clean house.

Bush’s initiative was plagued by at least three glaring defects: it promoted religious discrimination with taxpayer funds, it fostered religious proselytism at public expense and it was immune to serious oversight and scrutiny to test its effectiveness.

During a speech he delivered in Zanesville, Ohio, July 1, Obama acknowledged these flaws in the initiative and pledged to fix them. Here’s hoping he meant it.

Bush promulgated executive orders and regulatory changes to protect the so-called “right” of religious groups to accept tax money yet still refuse to hire people based on their religious beliefs or lifestyle choices. This is not right. Organizations offering publicly funded jobs should be required to follow our nation’s civil-rights laws. Imagine applying for a government-funded job but being told you won’t be hired – even though you are qualified – because you are the “wrong” religion. This type of discrimination with public funds must stop.

Likewise, all forms of proselytism and religious coercion in programs funded by federal “faith-based” money must end. It is not the job of government to endorse or promote any religion or sectarian concept. People who need services should be able to get them without being pressured to go to church, say prayers or engage in other religious activities.

Finally, we need to make certain faith-based programs work. Proponents of the faith-based concept are fond of making wild claims of success – but empirical evidence is lacking. Faith-based programs should be subjected to the same standard of review and oversight that secular programs must meet.

There are other problems with the faith-based initiative. For example, the Bush White House often used the program in a highly partisan manner. During the 2002 and 2004 elections, White House staffers appeared at religious gatherings and implied that the only way to keep the faith-based money flowing was to vote Republican. It would be equally wrong for Democrats to use the initiative to promote their party. The faith-based initiative is supposed to provide services to people in need. It must be depoliticized.

In an ideal world, Americans United would like to see the faith-based initiative shut down. A federal office that does nothing but look for ways to funnel tax assistance to religious groups is hard to square with our nation’s tradition of separation of church and state.

But since ending the initiative does not appear to be under consideration, the next best thing is to enact a series of reforms that will fix some of the more obvious constitutional defects of the plan. Obama has already highlighted three of these problems and has indicated that he will address them. Here’s hoping he follows through.