NEWS STORY: Religious Leaders Offer Mixed Assessment of Bush Speech

c. 2003 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ Religious leaders reacting to President Bush’s State of the Union speech seemed generally pleased with his proposal to further address the AIDS crisis in Africa but remained divided over his plans for confronting Iraq as well as domestic issues relating to cloning, abortion and faith-based groups. Faith groups […]

c. 2003 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ Religious leaders reacting to President Bush’s State of the Union speech seemed generally pleased with his proposal to further address the AIDS crisis in Africa but remained divided over his plans for confronting Iraq as well as domestic issues relating to cloning, abortion and faith-based groups.

Faith groups across the political and theological spectrum praised the president for addressing AIDS in Africa and the Caribbean by asking Congress to spend $15 billion in the next five years to fight the disease in those parts of the world.


AIDS activists and relief agencies welcomed Bush’s declaration that “Seldom has history offered a greater opportunity to do so much for so many.”

“For millions of children in Africa and the Caribbean, President Bush’s State of the Union message wasn’t about war and peace, bears and bulls,” said Ken Casey, special assistant on AIDS for World Vision, the evangelical Christian relief agency. “It was about life and death.”

Thomas Hart, director of governmental affairs for the Episcopal Church, called the Bush announcement “very, very significant” and said he hopes more of the funding will come during the early part of the five-year period in which it is proposed.

“We’re very pleased that the president has shown real leadership on this issue,” Hart said. “That said, he and we have a huge task ahead of us to make sure that’s fully funded.”

The president’s words on Iraq prompted a more divided reaction.

“If Saddam Hussein does not fully disarm, for the safety of our people and for the peace of the world, we will lead a coalition to disarm him,” Bush said.

Mahdi Bray, executive director of the Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation, said the president’s words did not change his stand against war. Joining the applause for the AIDS initiative, he wished more money could be used for healing rather than battling.

“I think that we could certainly fight many other maladies around the world if we spent those resources on resolving social problems instead of spending billions of dollars on smart bombs,” said Bray, who joined an interfaith group outside the State Department on Wednesday to call for prayers for peace.


The Rev. Bob Edgar, general secretary of the National Council of Churches, worried about innocent casualties and further provocation of foreign hostility against the United States.

“A unilateral assault on Iraq would surely trigger a massive growth in anti-American terrorism that would make our homeland far less secure,” Edgar said.

The Rev. Jim Wallis, editor of Sojourners, an ecumenical organization that opposes war, said: “Despite the president’s strong rhetoric, he has not made a convincing case for war. Most churches have concluded that a war with Iraq would not be a just war.”

However, Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, took a different stance.

“I thought the president made a compelling case that Saddam Hussein and his weapons of mass destruction are a clear and growing danger to the safety and security of the citizens of the United States and all of our allies,” Land told Religion News Service in an interview.

Bush’s plans to advance his faith-based initiative by including religious groups among drug treatment programs receiving federal funding sparked criticism from those concerned about church-state separation.


Bush proposed a $600 million program to help treat drug addiction over the next three years. That plan would provide vouchers to those seeking treatment from faith-based and other groups.

To emphasize this issue, guests in the first lady’s box during the annual address included a representative of Teen Challenge, a ministry that aims to help people overcome drug addiction, and the founder of Healing Place Church, a Baton Rouge, La., program with similar goals.

Groups known for their desire to keep church and state separate criticized the plan.

“Where will this money come from if not from funding currently going to secular organizations doing this very same work?” asked Denise T. Davidoff, chair of the Interfaith Alliance Foundation. “Why do we want to invade the border between church and state and risk the loss of a fundamental building block of this nation?”

Mark Pelavin, associate director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, said the proposal indicates Bush is “heading down a dangerous road, putting the government in a position of choosing between and amongst religions.”

Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice, said he thinks faith-based groups should be considered a “viable option” among federally funded programs to help addicts.

“Extending those benefits to drug-rehab type of situations, I think, is a logical extension of the faith-based initiative,” said Sekulow, whose law firm was founded by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson.


(BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM _ STORY MAY END HERE)

The president also proposed $450 million for mentors to work with disadvantaged students and children of prisoners. Prison Fellowship Chairman Chuck Colson welcomed the move, saying it would prompt “rejoicing for the families of the least of these.”

The president’s reiteration of his opposition to cloning and the procedure critics call “partial-birth abortion” also prompted mixed reactions. Supporters like Focus on the Family President James Dobson said Bush’s language showed “strength and courage.” Pelavin, of the Religious Action Center, said Bush’s policies would hinder medical research and “chip away at women’s reproductive rights.”

The conclusion of Bush’s speech also was controversial.

Bush called freedom “God’s gift to humanity” and said of Americans: “We do not claim to know all the ways of Providence, yet we can trust in them, placing our confidence in the loving God behind all of life, and all of history.”

Sekulow, of the American Center for Law and Justice, said the ending was his favorite part and sent “the right message.”

But Tony Hileman, executive director of the American Humanist Association, said: “We ask … that Bush place his trust in the American people and in the citizens of the world _ in things as they are rather than as he might wish or imagine them to be.”

DEA END BANKS

Donate to Support Independent Journalism!

Donate Now!