Gov. Bush encouraging religious groups to provide government services

Gov. Bush encouraging religious groups to provide government services
By Mark Hollis Tallahassee Bureau Posted February 9 2004
Second of two parts.
TALLAHASSEE -- Jeb Bush is bringing down the wall between church and
state.
Religious groups in Florida, especially conservative Christian
organizations, are caring for foster children, overseeing adoptions,
teaching students from elementary school through college and
rehabilitating inmates.
Encouraging religious institutions to provide public services is a
policy that "now permeates life in our state," says the governor, a
converted and devout Catholic who has never been shy about embracing a
conservative Christian social agenda.
In his first inaugural address five years ago he pledged that state
government would pursue a "moral and spiritual awakening."
That's a view alarming to church-state separatists and civil
libertarians, and the debate about the appropriate roles of
governments and religion in Florida has intensified since the December
debut of Lawtey Correctional Institution in North Florida, where
inmates agree to make religious instruction a part of their
confinement. It's the first such prison in the country.
Actually, long before Bush, Florida encouraged preachers, rabbis and
volunteers of all faiths to provide services and to manage the
spending of government funds. Taxpayer-funded vouchers to pay for
education in private and church-connected schools exploded into a
campaign issue for Bush in 2002, but other administrations gave public
money to religious education in the form of grants to religious
colleges.
Bush's immediate predecessor, the late Lawton Chiles, especially
embraced linkages with religious groups and, like Bush, turned to them
for political support in election years.
What is different now is Bush's boldness in championing Christian
conservative issues and the federal backing he has won for his
campaign.
In addition to the statewide voucher program, Bush has made school
prayer, abortion limits, and the legal rights of fetuses and the
terminally ill major topics of debate and action in the Legislature.
He wants state agencies and churches to work together more and, at a
recent prayer rally in Tallahassee, announced he had set up an
advisory board to recommend how faith-based groups can get "fair and
equitable access to state government."
Some of the ideas include creating a bureau within the Governor's
Office on faith-based initiatives and helping Florida compete for
about $200 million in federal grants for such efforts. The group also
has suggested a survey to measure cultural attitudes about marriage in
order to formulate a plan on how to make marriages stronger.
New rules for federal funding
Bush's conservative religious agenda in Florida is no national oddity,
in part because his brother has pressed a similar agenda.
In his State of the Union address two weeks ago, President Bush
renewed his push for faith-based social services.
He also has called for new tax breaks to encourage charitable giving
and new rules so that religious groups can more easily get federal
money.
Former Floridian Jim Towey, head of the White House Office of
Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, embodies the connection between
state- and federal-level attempts to blend church and state. Towey has
visited the state several times with promises of federal funding. And
he was working for Aging with Dignity, a Florida nonprofit group he
founded, when he signaled his interest in the White House job through
his friend, Jeb Bush, who recommended him.
Activists are troubled by such plans and connections. Larry Spalding,
a spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union, says government
should stay as far away from religion as possible.
"We really don't think the government should be involved in the
finances of churches," Spalding said. "At some point, you run the risk
of deciding which religion you like better rather than what program
you like better."
The governor is deaf to such complaints. When he needed a new head for
the troubled Department of Children & Families, he tapped Jerry
Regier, founder of the conservative Christian Family Research Council.
As head of Oklahoma's Health and Human Services Department, Regier was
an early proponent of government contracts for faith-based
organizations. Jeb Bush has stood by Regier even as he has run into
criticism for his handling of the department.
Bush, instead, has accused the media of an anti-Christian bias.
A Legislature of like thinkers
Regier recently named a "faith-based coordinator," Delbert R. Palmer
of Cocoa Beach, to travel to congregations, synagogues, mosques, the
Salvation Army and other community groups telling them how they can
get involved with DCF.
Alia Faraj, a spokeswoman for Bush, said the governor has asked all
state departments to name a faith-based coordinator.
DCF also is studying a possible "adopt a worker" program to get
churches praying for caseworkers.
Regier has started a Character First employee training and recognition
program in Central Florida modeled after one by conservative Christian
evangelist Bill Gothard. Hundreds of DCF employees are being taught
the importance of meekness, deference and obedience.
DCF recently got $1.7 million in federal funding to pilot three
marriage-strengthening projects during the next three years.
Bush expects to get budget authority from the Legislature this spring
to get them started. The money will go to three organizations,
including Weston-based Practical Application of Intimate Relationship
Skills, that will do research and train public, private, nonprofit and
faith-based groups in how to counsel couples.
The idea comes from Oklahoma's 4-year-old Marriage Initiative, which
Regier was to have directed until Bush hired him.
Bush has gotten help in pushing his faith-based ideals from a
Legislature controlled by fellow Republicans and filled with powerful,
like thinkers.
Legislators have commissioned studies of how they can overcome legal
barriers against funneling federal money into religious organizations.
House Speaker Johnnie Byrd proposes putting faith-based organizations
to work taking care of children after school while their parents are
still working. State Sen. Daniel Webster of Orlando has long been
linked with Gothard's group, and when he served as House speaker, he
hired several of its devotees for key staff positions.
Using clout for Christian ideals
The governor's and Legislature's enthusiasm for embedding religious
programs and themes into state operations drew national attention last
year in the case of Terri Schiavo.
After more than a decade of legal wrangling over whether Schiavo
should continue to be kept alive artificially, her feeding tube had
been removed when Bush swung into action and rammed through an
extraordinary bill giving him the right to intervene. He ordered the
tube replaced.
Religious conservatives hail Schiavo as one of their biggest political
victories in recent years. They prevailed over powerful courts, they
say, through prayer vigils, Christian radio broadcasts and thousands
of e-mail messages to legislators and the governor.
Legal scholars and other critics predict that the governor and
Legislature's maneuvers to keep the woman alive will be ruled
unconstitutional, but the case showed Bush's willingness to use the
authority of his office to support a major Christian ideal.
That's one reason watchdog groups are disturbed by indications that
Bush is trying to influence how courts rule on matters of religion.
He has appointed many conservatives and religious fundamentalists to
what are known as judicial nominating commissions -- boards that help
select new judges.
He has that right, but leading Democratic state legislators, ACLU
leaders and some legal scholars say the governor has gone too far when
they see his top legal advisers pressuring JNCs to question candidates
about abortion legislation and posting biblical quotes in courtrooms.
Regardless of criticism about his welcoming religion into courtrooms,
classrooms and government centers, Bush has not wavered and continues
to preach that religious groups can, and must, play a part in
addressing social needs.
"It's not right that an organization which may have a cross or Star of
David or crescent on its walls be excluded from providing a helping
hand to someone in need," he said "There are people who create these
egregious stereotypes of people of faith, implying bad motives, not
based on fact. ... There are all sorts of programs where faith-based
programs should be at the table. They should not be excluded."
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