wfn.org | Bush proposes giving money to religious groups tackling social ills

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

July 23, 1999	News media contact: Thomas S.
McAnally*(615)742-5470*Nashville, Tenn.    10-21-71B{387}

By United Methodist News Service

Texas Gov. George W. Bush, the Republican presidential front-runner and a
United Methodist, is proposing that billions of government dollars be given
to faith groups to tackle social problems.

In a speech in Indianapolis July 22, Bush called for a bold step in welfare
reform, promising a government that turns first to faith-based organizations
and community groups to help people in need.

Bush, 53, and his wife Laura are members of Highland Park United Methodist
Church in Dallas. During his term as governor, they are attending Tarrytown
United Methodist Church in Austin.

"In every instance where my administration sees a responsibility to people,
we will look first to faith-based organizations, charities and community
groups that have shown their ability to save and change lives," Bush said in
a speech at the Metro Church in Indianapolis.

He pledged to rally the "armies of compassion" to "fight a very different
war against poverty and hopelessness, a daily battle waged house to house
and heart by heart."

Outlining a specific set of initiatives in this area,  Bush said, "We are a
wealthy nation  but we must also be rich in ideals -- rich in justice and
compassion and family love and moral courage."

As president, Bush said he would dedicate $8 billion - an amount equal to 10
percent of the non-Social Security surplus - to provide new tax incentives
for giving and to support charities and other private institutions that
address human needs.  "We will prove, in word and deed, that our prosperity
has a purpose," he said.

Bush said his administration would immediately begin involving faith-based
and private institutions in specific areas of need to demonstrate how this
new approach would work. He cited examples such as opening federal
after-school programs to community groups, churches and charities, making
faith-based and other non-medical drug treatment programs eligible for
federal funds, and assisting and mentoring the estimated 1.3 million
children with parents in prison.

He also proposed setting up a Compassion Capital Fund to identify good ideas
transforming neighborhoods and lives and provide seed money to support them.

Among those meeting privately with Bush before his address was the Rev.
Charles Harrison, pastor of Barnes United Methodist Church in Indianapolis.
Harrison heads a Ten-Point Coalition that works on issues of  violence with
children, particularly in the black community. 

"I was very impressed with his address because of what my local church is
doing," Harrison said.  "There are things that the faith community can do to
address these issues. It was encouraging to us that he believes the
government ought to support such programs and that he is willing to set
aside $8 billion to do that."

Harrison said he has had a good experience of working with local government
and hopes the same principles could be applied nationally. "Government gets
out of our way and provides us with resources to do our work," he said.
"When I met with Mr. Bush privately, I sensed he was a man of integrity and
really had a passion for this and that he would be true to his word."

Vice President Albert Gore, the Democratic contender, made a similar
proposal in May. He promised to place faith-based organizations at the heart
of his strategy to combat poverty. 

"If you elect me your president, the voices of faith-based organizations
will be integral to the policies set forth in my administration," Gore
pledged.

The fact that both political parties are acknowledging the significant
social service work done by faith groups was greeted with both appreciation
and suspicion by Harman Wray of Nashville, Tenn., who has worked for 27
years in prison ministries.

"Whether Bush or Gore, this issue is strategically being used to further a
political agenda," Wray said. "It is pandering to the reigning ideology that
small government is good government, with the exception of military and
criminal justice. In those cases, we want government to be big, bad and
mean. When people are suffering, we want government to be very small and
impotent and pretend that the private sector can handle it." 

There is a danger, Wray continued, that such initiatives are "part of a
cynical ploy on the part of those who are more conservative than
compassionate to get religious support for their political agenda." On the
other hand, Wray said he wouldn't discount them entirely because "there are
things the faith communities have been doing and doing well and can do and
they could use more resources to do them."

Wray noted that the creation of Social Security, food stamps and public
housing was necessary because churches and families could no longer carry
the responsibilities in a changing society.  "The government must have a
primary role," he said. "What is so special about today's religious
communities that makes us think that while it couldn't be done before it
could be done now? " 

He also raised possible church-state conflicts. "I think it is important to
avoid privileges for certain faiths and religious communities over others.
I'm not sure that will be easy to do."

However, the head of the world's largest prisoner outreach organization
voiced support for Bush. Charles W. Colson, chairman of Prison Fellowship
Ministries, said in a release that he was "thrilled with the commitment that
Gov. Bush has made in promoting faith-based programs to solve public policy
problems. In 25 years of working with prisoners, their families and victims
of crimes, I have seen that faith is the only thing that really changes
lives."

Of Bush's speech, Wray said he saw a "radical disconnect between what he
seems to be saying about compassion and mercy and justice and what he and
his state government are doing in the area of crime and punishment. Texas
has one of the worst prison systems in the United States and the world when
it comes to both conditions of imprisonment and the sheer massiveness of the
prison industry in the state." It also is a leading state in putting inmates
to death, he noted.

The Restorative Justice Ministries program that Wray directs was initiated
by the church's 1996 General Conference.

Carlton Caruthers, a United Methodist home missionary for the Board of
Global Ministries, directs the Dumas Wesley Community Center in Mobile, Ala.
"My gut reaction after reading Gov. Bush's speech is that it is the same
Republican rhetoric that has been going around for some time: that churches
and individuals can take care of charitable needs. That's never been the
case.  It sounds good and reads good but it hasn't been that feasible.

"I hate to turn the man off," Caruthers continued. "What he says and the way
he says it sounds pretty compassionate.  Maybe he can do something the
others haven't done to be more responsive and to help institutions like
this. In this town, private institutions do a terrific job of serving the
clientele they are designed to serve. They could certainly do better with
more resources."

Dumas recently built  the Sybil H. Smith Family Village, a transitional home
for homeless women and children with funds from a variety of sources,
including the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Dumas Wesley
Community Center was founded in 1903 by Methodists and today receives
support from churches, the United Way and others. It has a close
relationship with the churchwide Board of Global Ministries, and half of its
board members are United Methodists.

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