Source: National Review
On February 19, 2001, the National Review published a criticism by Kate O'Beirne of Bush's new faith-based initiative. One concern she brings up is that the government will "throttle the faith-based programs with regulations," or try to "to distort the mission of faith-based groups receiving public money." Another is that most religious-sounding social-welfare programs are actually not "devoted to spiritual renewal and character transformation," which many of the initiative's supporters see as the unique strength of religious groups' programs. She sums up by pointing out the difficulty of finding "balance between impermissibly promoting sectarian interests and irreparably damaging the independence of religious charities."