Obama adopts a bad Bush idea

Matt Friedeman - Guest Columnist - 7/8/2008 8:00:00 AM

Barack Obama has found common ground with President Bush, and – guess what! – it's at a point where government funding can ultimately only hurt.

Eight years ago Governor George W. Bush campaigned hard on faith-based initiatives which would link government funding with faith organizations' hands-on efforts in places where the country's needs seemed greatest.  If religious charities were being successful, why not find a way to provide them funds to expand their work?  Eight years later, Barack Obama is saying "Amen!" to the basic concept, declaring that with such trenchant problems as America faces "we need all hands on deck."

Why Bush and Obama were, and are, wrong:

• Just because government isn't funneling taxpayer money into faith-based efforts doesn't mean that "all hands" are not on deck.  Truth is, if government funds with the concomitant regulations are going to be involved, some of the existing hands on deck are liable to get tied down, frustrated, and discouraged to the point of quitting. History has shown us the negative side-effects, however unintended, of government funding applied to alleviate desperate human need.  Anybody ever heard of the "War on Poverty" that actually perpetuated the problem and certainly engendered enormous behavioral consequences?

 

It is the height of arrogance to think that just because government hasn't dumped on millions, "all hands" need fortification.

 

• Separation of church and state is a beggardly concept if by it we mean that the church should stay out of politics.  However, if it means that the state should let the church and her ministries engage society, unencumbered by government intervention and bureaucracy, it has serious constitutional merit.  That church and state might wed in the near future at the point of millions, even billions, of dollars is not just frightening, but something from which the church should run – and run fast. Ever heard of "mission drift?"  That is what happens whenever government money, with its accompanying regulations, touches an effective faith-based program.  The "Great Commission" takes a back seat to expertise at grant applications.

 

• In future Obama-style faith-based initiatives, rules will be set in place to ensure that the organizations cannot discriminate based on...faith.  Good-bye religious distinctiveness, hello universalism.

 

Obama in his own words last week:

"Now, make no mistake, as someone who used to teach constitutional law, I believe deeply in the separation of church and state, but I don't believe this partnership will endanger that idea – so long as we follow a few basic principles. First, if you get a federal grant, you can't use that grant money to proselytize to the people you help and you can't discriminate against them – or against the people you hire – on the basis of their religion. Second, federal dollars that go directly to churches, temples, and mosques can only be used on secular programs."

I once debated a well-known American evangelical who informed me that he had talked with Mr. Bush in the Oval Office about these issues and that the church and its efforts to "feed the poor," etc., would be kept separate.  "Separate?" I expostulated.  "You, sir, have never operated like that in your ministry, which is why it has been so successful across the years."  But, with the lure of millions, this leader was willing to bifurcate his ministry effort – sacred over here, secular over there.

 

• A template of government philosophy maintains that if anything is worth doing, government out to be smack-dab in the middle of it all.  In biblical ministry, God is at the center.  Want to guess what government will do to God-centered ministry?  And note it well – while government won't perhaps explicitly promote itself as Savior, that role is what it inevitably aspires to.

 

• Visit the Mississippi and Louisiana coasts.  Katrina clean-up and re-building are obviously still under way.  There is widespread grousing about the government's failures. In contrast, appreciation runs high for the strong witness of local churches from across this country that have come to the sacrificial rescue of those beleaguered by that devastating storm.

 

This contemporary illustration ought to clarify our response to Obama's latest embrace – and potential expansion – of Bush's initial bad idea.

Government and faith-based initiative – not a match made in heaven.

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