Interfaith

Mixed Reactions to Funding of Faith-Based Organizations

February 3, 2001

Source: The Economist

On February 3, 2001, The Economist published an article about reactions to Bush's new faith-based initiative. "To its proponents, this is nothing less than a new way to help the poor." Religious groups have the advantage that "they are prepared to insist that recipients change their behaviour, which is the best way of getting out of poverty...Opponents of the idea focus on a different aspect: it is, they think, an affront to the religious liberties enshrined in the constitution." The article says the basic idea of the plan is "modest...

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Mixed Reactions to Funding of Faith-Based Organizations

February 2, 2001

Source: The San Diego Union-Tribune

On February 2, 2001, The San Diego Union-Tribune published an article by Jim VandeHei of The Wall Street Journal on President Bush's new faith-based initiative. "In many ways, these moves simply advance a trend, visible in both parties and on display in Bush's early days in office, toward a more open acknowledgment of the role religion plays in public life." VandeHei described the InnerChange program in Texas, which Bush sees "as a model of the sort of thing he would like to see spread across the country...It...

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Mixed Reactions to Funding of Faith-Based Organizations

February 2, 2001

Source: .The Houston Chronicle

On February 2, 2001, The Houston Chronicle reported on some more responses to Bush's new faith-based initiative. One leading critic of Bush's plan is the Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. Another critic, Jim Harrington, of the Austin-based Texas Civil Rights Project, said Bush 'wants to almost constitutionalize religion.'" The program also has many supporters, including Carl Esbeck, a lawyer and director of the Center for Law and Religious Freedom. Esbeck concedes,...

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Mixed Reactions to Funding of Faith-Based Organizations

February 2, 2001

Source: The Washington Post

On February 2, 2001, The Washington Post reported on Bush's "maiden appearance before the annual National Prayer Breakfast," where he spoke about his new faith-based initiative. He "extolled the influence of faith on his life and on the life of the nation" and said that "the days of discriminating against religious institutions simply because they are religious must come to an end." Adopting an inclusive theme, he said that "an American president serves people of every faith and serves some of no faith at all." Although Bush...

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New Holy Land Park Stirs Controversy

February 2, 2001

Source: USA TODAY

On February 2, 2001, USA TODAY reported on the Holy Land Experience in Orlando, Florida, which claims to "transport" visitors to the ancient Middle East. Its 15 acres include a replica of the temple of King Herod, a cement copy of the Qumran Caves, where ancient Jews stashed the Dead Sea Scrolls, a palm-tree grove mimicking the Via Dolorosa, the path to Jesus' crucifixion, a Jerusalem City Gate, and "Calvary's Garden Tomb, where [people dressed as ancient Israelites] celebrate the resurrection of Christ." Costumed dramatists tell Old and...

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Arizona Court Ruling Bans Religious Discrimination Against Prospective Jurors

February 1, 2001

Source: Arizona Business Gazette

On February 1, 2001, the Arizona Business Gazette reported that, "in a precedent-setting move, the Arizona Court of Appeals has expanded the list of prohibited reasons for striking jurors to include their religion. The judges concluded that allowing attorneys to use their peremptory strikes to get rid of Roman Catholics because church leaders oppose the death penalty 'would condition the right to free exercise of religion upon a relinquishment of the right to jury service.'" The judges said, however, that it is still okay to...

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Op-Ed Articles Respond to Bush's Faith-Based Initiative

February 1, 2001

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...

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Use of Jesus' Name in Bush's Inauguration Discussed

February 1, 2001

Source: The Christian Science Monitor

On February 1, 2001, The Christian Science Monitor reported that, after preachers prayed in the name of Jesus at Bush's inauguration, many Americans have "made their distress heard in letters to the editor and on op-ed pages of local newspapers." A Boston public-school educator wrote that it would be better to be silent than to offer a prayer that does not include Americans of all religious faiths. Others point to an inconsistency "between the prohibitions against public prayer in the school classroom and at football...

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Op-Ed Articles Respond to Bush's Faith-Based Initiative

January 31, 2001

Source: Los Angeles Times

On January 31, 2001, the Los Angeles Times published a commentary by Charles W. Colson that defended Bush's faith-based initiative. Colson is chairman of Prison Fellowship Ministries and he served time in prison for Watergate-related offenses. He spoke about the InnerChange Freedom Initiative in Houston, which was started by his ministry. "For 18 hours a day, prisoners who volunteer for the program are immersed in intensive life-skills training and Bible study. After 18 months, they are released, matched with a mentor, given a job...

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Op-Ed Articles Respond to Bush's Faith-Based Initiative

January 31, 2001

Source: Los Angeles Times

On January 31, 2001, the Los Angeles Times published an op-ed piece on Bush's faith-based initiative by Tamar Galatzan, the Western states associate counsel for the Anti-Defamation League. She warned that "every component of these initiatives [supporting faith-based programs] must abide by legal and practical safeguards. For one thing, President Bush must ensure that recipients of federal funds comply with the requirements and restrictions that are imposed upon all government-funded activity by the religion clause of the 1st...

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Op-Ed Articles Respond to Bush's Faith-Based Initiative

January 31, 2001

Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

On January 31, 2001, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette published an op-ed piece by Sally Kalson that raised concerns about Bush's faith-based initiative. "If the government says 'no' to the Branch Davidians but 'yes' to the Southern Baptists who are proposing to do the same thing, is that religious favoritism, discrimination or an invitation to litigation?" Will people, she asks, want to support with their taxes the program of a fundamentalist church whose members believe "the more women submit to their husbands, the more peaceful...

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Mixed Reactions to Funding of Faith-Based Organizations

January 30, 2001

Source: The New York Times

On January 30, 2001, The New York Times reported that "flanked by an array of religious leaders, President Bush today signed two executive orders that throw open the doors of government to religious and community groups as part of a broad effort to refashion the way government delivers social services...The move is likely to be applauded by many religious leaders and Americans who believe that faith has long been the missing ingredient in government programs for the homeless, drug addicts, prisoners, the mentally ill and the...

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Mixed Reactions to Funding of Faith-Based Organizations

January 30, 2001

Source: The Interfaith Alliance

http://www.interfaithalliance.org/Newsroom/press/010130.htm

On January 30, 2001, The Interfaith Alliance (TIA) based in Washington, D.C. issued a news release on their "concerns about Bush's faith-based proposals to fund religious ministries...Clergy from across the ideological spectrum are raising concerns about...excessive government entanglement in the affairs of religious institutions, and [the temptation to] manipulate faith to...

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Mixed Reactions to Funding of Faith-Based Organizations

January 30, 2001

Source: The Atlanta Journal and Constitution

On January 30, 2001 The Atlanta Journal and Constitution reported that "as President Bush delivers his faith-based initiative to Capitol Hill today, his proposal to give religious groups greater access to federal funds is already dividing the nonprofit community. Bush signed an executive order Monday creating the nation's first White House Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives." The program is designed to send as much as $10 billion a year to faith-based organizations, so these institutions can...

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Mixed Reactions to Funding of Faith-Based Organizations

January 30, 2001

Source: The Washington Post

On January 30, 2001, The Washington Post reported that "President Bush, giving teeth to his father's decade-old "Thousand Points of Light" initiative, launched a broad governmental effort yesterday to invigorate religious charities and other nonprofit organizations in the battle against the nation's social problems. In the first step of what could be an unprecedented collaboration between the government and nonprofits, the president created offices in five Cabinet agencies and the White House with a charge to ease regulations...

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