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Groups Urge President To Beef Up Church-State Safeguards In Faith-Based Funding

By Howard M. Friedman

Yesterday, twenty-five national organizations wrote President Obama urging further church-state safeguards in faith-based social service programs receiving government aid. The letter (full text) said in part:

On the one year anniversary of your Executive Order establishing the new White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, the undersigned religious, education, civil rights, labor, and health organizations write to urge that you take additional actions to prevent government-funded religious discrimination and protect social service beneficiaries from unwelcome proselytizing.

The letter urged the White House to prohibit religious organizations from discriminating in hiring on the basis of religion within federally-funded social welfare projects. It also urged that the President amend existing Executive orders to ensure that:

Program beneficiaries are not subject to unwanted proselytizing or religious activities.

Program providers give proper notice to beneficiaries of their religious liberty rights and access to alternative, secular providers.

Houses of worship and other religious institutions, in which religion is so integrally infused that it cannot be separated out, be required to create separate corporations for the purpose of providing secular, government-funded social services.....

Secular alternatives to social services provided by houses of worship and other religious institutions are readily available to beneficiaries.....

Uniform guidance and training materials be developed for all federal agencies to ensure that government-funded providers understand constitutionally-required religious liberty safeguards..... Furthermore, providers should be required to certify their adherence to the safeguards ? and government agencies should engage in oversight to ensure compliance.

Here are the releases on the letter issued by the ADL, Americans United and the Baptist Joint Committee, all of which were signatories.

Full post as published by Religion Clause on February 05, 2010 (boomark / email).