Source: The Boston Globe
On February 1, 2001, The Boston Globe published an op-ed piece by Ellen Goodman about the debate over Bush's faith-based initiative. Goodman writes that, when ministers invoked Jesus Christ the savior at Bush's inauguration, "millions of Americans - from Buddhists to Unitarians - had to chose between
saying 'amen' or feeling excluded." When Bush introduced his new faith-based initiative, "talk about public funding of faith-based organizations
was polarized between forces we have come to label the religious right and the
secular left...Many on both sides seem to have
forgotten the time when our most prominent religious leaders, like Martin Luther
King, were not a threat to civil liberties or social justice, but a force for
them." She points out that the Rev. Jim Wallis, head of
Call to Renewal, defines faith as "'believing that change is possible, even
before it's possible.'...That's why faith can be at the heart of the programs that
revive the lives of drug addicts or neighborhoods."
Goodman concedes, though, that "when George Bush says that he 'will look first to faith-based programs and
community groups' to solve social programs, it's worth worrying that the
conservative agenda is to privatize the responsibilities of government and shunt
the homeless under a leaky church roof." She brought up other concerns: "how will the government
know if there's a sermon with the soup? Do churches want those limits?...And can you imagine a Bush administration funding
an after-school program run by the Nation of Islam or supporting a drug rehab
program of the Church of Scientology on the grounds that they work?...What happens if a taxpayer funds programs that
refuse to hire her on religious grounds?" Goodman concludes by saying that "for all the nervous reservations, there is quite simply an overriding need to
help transform lives. Sometimes that takes a leap of faith."