NEWS STORY: Religious Leaders Say Bush’s Support of Faith-Based Groups Is Convincing

c. 2000 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Leaders from a range of the nation’s faith groups came away from a meeting Wednesday (Dec. 20) with President-elect George W. Bush saying they are convinced he is committed to greater interaction between church and state in his new administration. “In the White House, there will be an office […]

c. 2000 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) Leaders from a range of the nation’s faith groups came away from a meeting Wednesday (Dec. 20) with President-elect George W. Bush saying they are convinced he is committed to greater interaction between church and state in his new administration.

“In the White House, there will be an office of faith-based programs, a place where people will feel comfortable about bringing their ideas, and a place where people will feel comfortable about bringing their complaints,” the president-elect told the gathering.


Between Cabinet appointments, Bush spent more than an hour with the interracial, bipartisan group that included about two dozen representatives of Christian, Jewish and Muslim groups.

During his campaign, Bush had emphasized his interest in faith-based organizations and his support of charitable-choice legislation, which enables faith-based groups to use public funds for job training, food and basic medical care.

Murray Friedman, regional director of the American Jewish Committee in Philadelphia, said he was “heartened” by Bush’s plans, despite his organization’s current opposition to “charitable choice” legislation.

“The very fact that he scheduled a meeting of this kind in the midst of picking his Cabinet and all the pressures that are on him seems to me to be indicative of a serious view of the attempt to bring the faith-based activism into public policy endeavors,” said Friedman, who attended the meeting.

The Jewish leader said he warned Bush that he was “moving into heavy weather” regarding faith-based activism because some groups are worried about religious entities becoming dependent on government funding and others are concerned about proselytism in religious settings providing federally funded programs.

“I said to him that you really need to develop a set of ground rules because it’s a brave new idea,” Friedman said.

But Bishop Carlton Pearson, a Tulsa, Okla., pastor who encouraged black Republican support for Bush during his campaign, said he thinks Bush will be able to build bridges between government and religion.


“He’s showing us the way to get around the paranoia of this whole idea of separation of church and state,” said Pearson. “Nobody wants to be under control of the other but we do want to work and walk together.”

Ron Sider, president of the Philadelphia-based Evangelicals for Social Action and a registered Democrat, said he left the meeting convinced that Bush wants to help the poor.

“I came away with a strengthened sense that he really does mean what he’s talking about in terms of compassionate conservatism, that he is going to place major emphasis on the role of faith-based organizations in overcoming poverty,” Sider said.

But Sider said while he and others may welcome the idea of an office addressing faith-based initiatives, that does not mean the government should leave social concerns solely in the lap of religious organizations.

“It’s very important … to insist that a greatly expanded role of faith-based organizations doesn’t mean for a minute that government doesn’t have a role to play,” he said.

Like others at the meeting, Sider presented Bush with his ideas for policy changes. In his case, he urged tax credits for the working poor and other measures that would help those with full-time work to have affordable health insurance.


After spending more than an hour with the president-elect, Sider said he believes Bush understands the different roles ahead for government and religious groups.

“He talked about poverty of the wallet and the poverty of the soul,” Sider said. “He thought government could help with the poverty of the wallet but government can’t heal hearts.”

(STORY CAN END HERE. OPTIONAL TRIM FOLLOWS)

Other religious leaders in attendance included: Bishop Joseph Fiorenza of Galveston-Houston, president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops; the Rev. Floyd Flake, former Democratic congressman and senior pastor at Allen African Methodist Episcopal Church in Jamaica, N.Y.; Bishop Charles Blake of West Angeles Church of God in Christ in Los Angeles; the Rev. Tony Evans, senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas; Imam Hassan Qazwini of the Islamic Center of America in Detroit; the Rev. Cheryl Sanders, senior pastor, Third Street Church of God in Washington; and the Rev. Jesse Miranda, president of Alianza de Ministerios Evangelicos Nacionales (Alliance of National Evangelical Ministries).

KRE END BANKS

Donate to Support Independent Journalism!

Donate Now!