Faith-based organizations face suits
Groups using federal funds are accused of proselytizing
By Frank James
http://tinyurl.com/d6w97
Faith-based groups are barred from proselytizing or engaging in other
obvious religious activity when using federal funds to encourage
teenagers to abstain from premarital sex or help substance abusers fight
addictions.
But some groups may have run afoul of that federal prohibition. Lawsuits
by the American Civil Liberties Union, Americans United for Separation
of Church and State, and the Freedom from Religion Foundation accuse the
faith-based organizations and the government of violating the
constitutional separation of church and state. Meanwhile, experts say
the Bush administration is doing too little to monitor religious groups
receiving federal money.
Critics cite the Silver Ring Thing program that preaches sexual
abstinence to teens. It is known for pulsing, high-tech, multimedia
shows at which teenagers can buy silver rings to symbolize their pledge
to avoid sex until marriage.
In the past year, the Health and Human Services Department suspended a
grant of more than $1 million to Silver Ring Thing after the ACLU of
Massachusetts sued the department, accusing it of mixing religion with
the sexual abstinence message. At the shows, Silver Ring Thing openly
urged teenagers to commit their lives to Jesus Christ, and the rings it
sold were inscribed with a New Testament verse.
"When the government looked into the situation in our case, they
obviously came to the same conclusion, that in fact their grant was not
being used properly and consistently with the Constitution," said Daniel
Mach, a 1st Amendment expert at the Jenner & Block law firm that has
represented the Massachusetts ACLU in the case.
Experts on faith-based groups that receive federal funds say vague
government rules have contributed to the situation, as has a lack of
government monitoring.
Although Catholic Charities, Lutheran Social Services and Jewish Family
Services long ago learned to clearly separate religion from the
government-funded social services they provide, experts say some new
recipients of federal funding--often groups operating out of churches,
synagogues, mosques and storefronts--are less careful. And critics say
the monitoring of these groups has not kept pace with the increase in
applicants for money since President Bush began lowering their barriers
to federal funding in 2001.
"There is little to no monitoring of faith content of services,"
Fredrica Kramer, a scholar at the Urban Institute, a research
organization here, said at a recent panel discussion on faith-based groups.
`Inherently religious' activities
According to the federal rules, faith-based groups receiving government
aid for social service programs may not use federal dollars for any
"inherently religious" activities. Further, participation in religious
activities by someone who receives assistance must clearly be voluntary.
And people receiving government money to fight substance abuse must be
offered a non-religious alternative if they voice discomfort with the
use of a faith-based provider.
But the rules are ambiguous in other areas, Ira Lupu, a George
Washington University Law School professor, told a conference last month
in Atlanta sponsored by the Roundtable on Religion and Social Welfare
Policy.
"Is it permissible," he asked, "to have religious themes, religious
content, religious activity, religious focus, religious transformation
as part of social service? As part of work training? As part of
substance abuse counseling? As a part of sexual abstinence teaching?"
Urban Institute researchers discovered an after-school child-care
program run by a faith-based group that was cited by federal officials
as a model, yet it was using Bible stories to teach reading skills to
children.
Bush administration officials defend their efforts to inform faith-based
organizations on what is and isn't allowed.
"I wouldn't necessarily agree there's not enough guidance," said
Josephine Robinson, director of the Office of Community Services within
the Health and Human Services Department.
Her office funds programs in four "priority" areas: assisting at-risk
youths, combating homelessness, providing assistance to rural
communities and promoting healthy marriages.
"We provide significant training and guidance to all of our grantees ...
about the explicit separation of religious activity and proselytizing
from any activities that are funded by [government] money," she said.
She acknowledged, however, that there are limits to how much direct
monitoring of grant recipients can be done by her office. She has a
staff of only four, and her office oversees an estimated 330 groups.
Jeffrey Trimbath, director of the Health and Human Services
abstinence-education program, which funded Silver Ring Thing, said he
could not discuss the case because of the ACLU's pending lawsuit.
Operating under different federal regulations than Robinson, Trimbath
said he hopes his Washington-based staff of six would be able to visit
all 144 community-based abstinence-education programs over a three-year
period. To date, he said, "probably five" have gotten "formal site visits."
`I felt helpless,' inmate says
The existing regulations are meant to prevent cases such as that of
Joseph Hanas. After he pleaded guilty to marijuana possession, a county
drug court judge in Michigan gave the 23-year-old Flint construction
worker a choice: agree to live for a year at Inner City Christian
Outreach, a faith-based residential facility, or be sent to jail. Hanas
chose Inner City, which is run by a Pentecostal church.
At Inner City, staffers told Hanas that his Roman Catholic faith was
"witchcraft" and prevented his priest from visiting him or giving him
his rosary beads, Hanas said.
And instead of substance-abuse treatment, Hanas said he was forced to
read the Bible several hours each day, attend five hours of church on
Sundays and was told the only way he would successfully complete the
program was to convert to the Pentecostal church.
"I felt helpless. I was threatened by prison and jail by the pastor the
whole time I was in there," Hanas said. After three months, the judge
responded to his complaints by removing him and sending him to jail.
No one at Inner City returned a phone call for comment, and it couldn't
be immediately determined what taxpayer money, if any, his program has
received.
The ACLU has filed a federal lawsuit seeking to have Hanas released on
probation on grounds that the drug court, by sending him to Inner City,
violated Hanas' 1st Amendment right to free exercise of religion as well
as the "establishment" clause requiring the separation of church and state.
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