June 3, 1999 | Read Time: 4 minutes
Vice-President Al Gore last week declared that he wants to create a “new partnership” between government and religious organizations.
Mr. Gore told officials at the Atlanta chapter of the Salvation Army that if he wins the Presidential election next year, he will push to expand the pool of federal-grant and corporate-giving programs that are open to churches, synagogues, mosques, and other religious groups that provide social services.
“If you elect me President,” said Mr. Gore, a Democrat, “the voices of faith-based organizations will be integral to the policies set forth in my administration.”
Mr. Gore said he believes that politicians need to do more than simply support secular volunteer efforts. “Some past national political leaders have asked us to rely on a fragile patchwork of well-intentioned volunteerism to feed the hungry and house the homeless,” he said. “That approach, optimistic though it was, was not adequate for the problems too many Americans face.”
Describing his vision for a “politics of community,” Mr. Gore said he supports lowering the legal barriers that prevent religious groups from receiving government money to pay for social services. He said he would like to see the “charitable choice” provision, which was part of the 1996 welfare law, cover other federal aid programs, such as drug treatment, homelessness, and youth-violence prevention.
The 1996 provision permits organizations that receive federal welfare dollars to require their employees to be of a particular faith, and it allows those groups to keep religious icons on their walls when providing social services paid for by the government. But it prohibits the use of government dollars for proselytizing or for subsidizing the costs of running worship services.
“I believe we should extend this carefully tailored approach to other vital services,” Mr. Gore said, according to the prepared version of his speech provided by his campaign.
Sen. John Ashcroft, the Missouri Republican who sponsored the charitable-choice provision in the welfare law, has introduced a bill in Congress that would expand the concept to juvenile-justice programs. He praised Mr. Gore’s comments as “welcome news.”
While the Vice-President emphasized the need for safeguards to prevent government endorsement of a particular religious view, Mr. Gore said religious groups should be able to receive government money “without having to alter the religious character that is so often the key to their effectiveness.”
Such an idea remains controversial. Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a long-time critic of the charitable-choice law, responded to Mr. Gore’s speech by saying that the concept “is fatally flawed from a constitutional perspective.” The Washington organization is actively looking for cases it can use to challenge the 1996 provision in court.
What’s more, even two and a half years after its passage, the charitable-choice provision remains largely untested. New dollars are only now beginning to flow to religious groups as a result of the change in law (The Chronicle, April 8).
Still, Mr. Gore’s comments signal growing support by politicians for finding new ways for government to work with religious groups. Other likely Presidential contenders who also have weighed in on the topic include:
* Gov. George W. Bush, the Texas Republican, who has taken the lead at the state level in promoting government partnerships with religious groups. In 1997 Governor Bush signed several bills into state law that applied charitable-choice concepts to other areas, such as prisons. Several state agencies, at his urging, have also made explicit invitations to religious groups in their written requests for grant and contract proposals.
* Rep. John Kasich, an Ohio Republican, has introduced legislation in Congress that would allow states to use federal money to offset the costs that they would incur if they offered state-tax credits to people who give to antipoverty charities — including groups with religious ties.
* Democratic challenger Bill Bradley, a former Senator from New Jersey, and former Republican Governor of Tennessee Lamar Alexander have both identified religious groups as key players in their work on commissions that have studied ways to make America a more “civil” society.
In addition to trying to open up government grant programs to religious groups, Mr. Gore encouraged private companies to allow faith-based organizations to compete for donations. In particular, he encouraged businesses with programs that match their employees’ donations with company money to allow matches for gifts to religious or faith-based groups.
“For too long, faith-based organizations have wrought miracles on a shoestring,” said Mr. Gore. “With the steps I’m proposing today, they will no longer need to rely on faith alone.”
The text of the remarks that were prepared for Vice-President Gore to deliver at the Atlanta chapter of the Salvation Army are available on his Presidential campaign Web site at http://AlGore2000.com.
