wfn.org | Agency executive praises Bush for support of bill

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

March 14, 2002  News media contact: Tim Tanton7(615)742-54707Nashville,
Tenn.  10-71BP{109}

NOTE: A head-and-shoulders photograph of Jim Winkler is available at
http://umns.umc.org/photos/headshots.html online.

By United Methodist News Service

The top staff executive of the United Methodist Church's social action
agency is offering praise and a few suggestions for President Bush regarding
a Senate bill targeting poverty.

"I am writing to commend you for your support of the Charity Aid, Recovery
and Empowerment Act and to recommend some improvements," wrote Jim Winkler,
head of the United Methodist Board of Church and Society, on March 13. 

The CARE bill, co-sponsored by Sens. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., and Rick
Santorum, R-Pa., is aimed at fighting poverty and would enable faith-based
organizations to receive federal dollars for providing social services. The
legislation represents a key step in implementing Bush's faith-based
initiatives plan.
 
The United Methodist Church's highest decision-making body, the General
Conference, has defined six criteria that must be met before it supports
government funding of church-administered social service programs, according
to the Washington-based board. The criteria are spelled out in the
denomination's 2000 Book of Resolutions and were detailed in a report to the
White House last year from three general agencies of the church.
 
"As we partner with the government," Winkler wrote, "the United Methodist
Church does not object to religious organizations receiving public funds to
deliver social services as long as those funds do not go to proselytizing or
discriminatory practices. Our denomination urges its churches to form
separate 501(c) 3 organizations to receive government funds."

The board supports the bill's expansion of individual development accounts,
he wrote. The accounts represent collaborations of corporations, nonprofit
groups and individuals that help people save money and receive matching
funds to buy a home, start a business or pay for higher education. "This
innovative way of reducing poverty will help people gain self-sufficiency,
better jobs and better housing." 
 
Winkler expressed support for the bill's provision to ease the process for
religious organizations and community groups obtaining tax-exempt status and
urged that the legislation include specific language prohibiting
discrimination of any kind when providing government services. 

"We still have reservations with the CARE legislation," he wrote. "By not
directly prohibiting discrimination when religious organizations provide
government services, this bill allows religious organizations to sidestep
civil rights law when hiring people to fill federally funded social services
programs. Existing case law is not a sufficient safeguard against
discrimination by religious groups."
 
The bill contains provisions for establishing accounts by low-income wage
earners that would receive matching funds, and tax incentives for
non-itemizers to give to charities.  The board supports both, but Winkler
added that the tax breaks could do more harm than good for families living
in poverty "if these tax breaks are paid for with cuts in funding from
federally funded programs to assist the poor. This would be completely
unacceptable."

"The CARE Act is a step in the right direction," Winkler wrote. "However,
neither the church nor the government can become complacent in the struggle
against poverty or lose its vigilance in regard to the proper separation of
church and state."

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United Methodist News Service
Photos and stories also available at:
http://umns.umc.org