WASHINGTON — A Jewish drug addict needs treatment but the only program available is run by Louis Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam, so he must accept Allah before he can receive counseling.
A homeless Jewish family goes to a church-run shelter but the family must attend a Christian prayer session in order to receive services.
Could these scenarios happen?
Some Jewish activists envision such horror stories as they take stock of President Bush’s new initiative to increase the partnership between the federal government and religious institutions in delivering social services.
But while some fear that the Bush administration could erode the separation of church and state, others, primarily in the Orthodox community, want faith-based institutions to play a greater role in providing social services, as long as minority religions are protected.
Bush’s initiative, launched this week to help fund social service programming run by faith-based groups, marks a shift in the way federal money could be used to help people in need. The initiative has sparked a national debate about whether religious institutions that do charitable work should receive government funding.
In the Jewish community, the debate about church-state separation is accompanied by another significant issue: how such a program will affect the social service landscape that has been a hallmark of Jewish communal work.
Government funding for religious-based organizations to provide charitable services is not new. For decades, local, state and federal money have been going to Jewish organizations, most notably the Jewish federation system, to fund such programs as nursing homes, drug treatment programs, family counseling and services for the homeless as well as emigres. But, the federations say, there is a difference between their services and ones that might be run by a synagogue or church.
Federations and the organizations they fund work to ensure that safeguards are in place to prevent blurring of church-state separation, and that they deliver services in a non-religious fashion, without employing religious coercion.
There is concern about whether the same safeguards would apply to religious institutions charged with delivering the same services under Bush’s plan.
Signing an executive order Monday, Bush established a new federal office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives as well as centers in five federal agencies to address how the government can fund religious institutions.University of Pennsylvania Professor John DiIulio was tapped to head up the new office.
Stephen Goldsmith, the Jewish former mayor of Indianapolis, will serve on the board of the Corporation for National Service, a federal agency that oversees domestic volunteer programs such as AmeriCorps, and serve in an advisory capacity to the new office.
Before signing the executive order Bush met with Jewish, Christian and Muslim representatives. Jewish participants included Harvey Blitz, the president of the Orthodox Union; Cheryl Halpern, the national chairwoman of the Republican Jewish Coalition, and Rabbi Abraham Twerski, who directs the Gateway Rehab Center in Pittsburgh.
Bush unveiled an outline of his plan Tuesday and sent the proposal to Congress.
But with details of the plan still sketchy, community leaders are wondering how this action might affect their work.
National Jewish organizations focused on church-state separation and local federations already involved in social service delivery share several concerns. Among the assurances they seek:
*Averting religious discrimination in hiring and firing those who will deliver social services.
*Providing of secular alternatives to religiously provided services.
*Establishing clear “firewalls” between government-funded services and the core religious activities of a religious organization.
With government money going directly to religious institutions, some fear there will be “discrimination with the stamp of approval of the president,” said Rabbi David Saperstein, the executive director of the Religious Action Center for Reform Judaism.
Saperstein, who joined with clergy from other religions on Tuesday to voice concerns about the plan, also expressed fears that religious groups would be in the position of competing against each other.