What is going on with Shrub's Faith-Based Initiative...

[whistle]

...$1.1 billion program? I'm hearing rumors and lots of talk about major abuses and vote buying by republicans here in Florida. Also, only fundamentalist Christian groups are getting approvals while other religious based organizations are being systematically turned down. I heard that in April Bush's proposal was put aside, but then I see where money is being distributed to select groups anyway. I found the following site which has some information. Can any of you DU'ers help shed light on this as to how effective the program has been.

<more> http://www.mediatransparency.org/faithbased_watch.htm


Bill Berkowitz
February 5, 2004

Slouching toward theocracy

President Bush's faith-based initiative is doing better than you think

Last week marked the third anniversary of the president's creation of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives (OFBCI). Over the past three years, executive orders were issued, Centers for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives were established at seven federal agencies, web sites were created, technical assistance to religious organizations was given at seminars and conferences, guidebooks helping religious groups apply for government funds were published, and billions were earmarked for faith-based institutions.


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Forward
January 30, 2004
ORI NIR

Groups Seek To Monitor Faith-Based Initiatives

List Compiled To Track Grants



In a tacit admission of their inability to block President Bush's faith-based initiative, the Anti-Defamation League and other civil-liberties groups are shifting their fight to the field, in a concerted effort to monitor social service programs run by religious organizations.

The Forward has learned that ADL staffers in Washington last month spent days combing through a list of some 3,600 organizations and institutions across America that received new government funds to deliver services to the homeless. The goal was to determine which religious groups received funds, the size of each allocation and how much of the total $1.1 billion in grants from the Department of Housing and Urban Development was funneled to religious organizations.

After the data was analyzed, computerized lists of the faith-based grantees were sent to ADL's 28 regional offices throughout the United States. Field officers with the league were instructed to use the lists to ensure that church-state guidelines are being respected as more religious groups receive federal funds.

"We are literally following the money" as it's disbursed from Washington to religious groups in the field, said ADL's top lawyer, Michael Lieberman.

The new strategy — which liberal groups acknowledge is highly inefficient, costly and unlikely to provide an adequate check against constitutional violations — is a result of two recent developments. First, a series of court rulings opened the way for the federal and state governments to fund social services through religious organizations. The other development is President Bush's insistence on bypassing congressional opposition and pushing his "charitable choice" initiative by executive order.