The Religious Right’s Buffet Line,
a.ka. President Bush’s Faith Based Initiative
by Hank Edson
One of the key tools used by the Republican Alliance to pursue its essentially anti-democratic agenda is what I call the secretive executive platform. These platforms depend upon being able to fly under the radar of political oversight and they employ a variety of approaches to maintain their secrecy. These different platforms include task forces, advisory boards, alternative intelligence gathering departments, and policy arguments designed to expand the power of the executive branch to the point where it is almost unlimited. Among the various secret executive branch platforms used by the Republican Alliance to pursue the authoritarian, wealth-concentrationist ends are the Defense Policy Board, the Office of Special Plans, and the Policy Counterterrorism Evaluation Group, Vice President Cheney’s Energy Task Force, to name a few. In this segment, I will focus on the platform engineered to payback supporters in the Religious Right and to institutionalize the psychological manipulation of false religion within the government in a manner directly contrary to the constitutional doctrine of separation of church and state. We are talking about President Bush’s “faith-based initiative.”
President Bush’ faith-based initiative provides an executive branch platform through which billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars are diverted ultimately for the political purpose of empowering the Religious Right. An estimated $1.7 billion dollars was dolled out in 2003 alone, much of which was directed to key supporters of the Religious Right branch of the Republican Alliance. [i] To some, this platform may not appear secretive. After all, it was part of Bush Jr.’s campaign. Although the program is broadly publicized, however, key details remain hidden. From the very begging, the administration’s penchant for secrecy gave way to revelations of impropriety. In July 2001, however, Americans United for Separation of Church and State issued a press release revealing that the Bush administration had “engaged in secret negotiations with the Salvation Army over the controversial faith-based initiative, which will give the religious group broad discretion to discriminate against gays with public tax dollars.” As part of the deal, the Salvation Army agreed to spend $110,000 per month to lobby in support of the faith-based initiative. [ii] Even after the secret deal was revealed and the White House issued a statement retracting the deal, the president of Americans United for Separation of Church and State called the move a “shell game” and noted that the “Community Solutions Act” then before congress exempts the religious groups it funds from having to follow state and local anti-discrimination laws.” [iii]
As another example of secrecy, administration spokespersons have maintained, according to a producer of Bill Moyer’s show, Now, that “they can’t break down how much money has gone so far to religious groups…they claim they don’t keep that information.” [iv] Significantly, President Bush, who demands strict accountability before he allows federal money to be directed to under-funded public schools through the No Child Left Behind Act, has no concern for accountability when it comes to his faith based initiative. Children are not one of his constituencies and therefore they only get funding if they can leap over hurdles they are intended not to be able to meet. The voters among the religious right, however, are vital to the Bush presidency and therefore getting money to them without the burden of oversight is of paramount importance.
Notably, whenever accountability would reflect poorly on President Bush, such accountability simply isn’t performed. Thus, General Tommy Franks and the Bush administration announced they don’t do body counts when it comes to civilian Iraqis killed in the war. In response to a law suit, the Bush campaign claimed that it did not have a complete list of Pioneers and Rangers with the specific amounts of money each raised. As the head of Texans for Public Justice explained, “It is unbelievable that the most successful fundraising list in the history of politics has been misplaced.” [v] The misplaced fundraising list is just another example of the Republican Alliance’s well honed instinct for dispersing evidence among multiple parties so that no one individual can ever be held responsible for the criminal enterprise cooperatively advanced by the whole. In another example, the head of White House Security testified before congress in 2006 that there was no investigation into who leaked CIA agent Vallery Plame’s identity to the press, even though President Bush promised an internal investigation. In this context, the failure of the faith based initiative to keep records of those to whom it gives money must be understood as secrecy. There is clearly a need for accountability here, as the following examples prove.
As I have discussed elsewhere, the underground fascist religious groups, the Unification Church and BattleCry, receive support from the faith-based initiative. The secrecy of these groups in conjunction with the lack of transparency and accountability present in the faith-based initiative have a troubling cumulative effect. Questions about misuse of funds for either proselytizing or personal profit have arisen. A prime recipient within Bush’s Religious Right constituency are abstinence-only sex-education programs. Sierra magazine reports that “Hundreds of federally funded abstinence-only programs are run by faith-based groups…[and that] thousands of dollars went to programs that included prayers as well as continuous references to God, Jesus Christ, and the spiritual repercussions of sex before marriage.” [vi] A recent study revealed that these abstinence-only programs produce absolutely no change in the sexual conduct of teenagers, raising questions about the waste of tax payer dollars, not to mention the unconstitutional use of them to support religious indoctrination.
In one instance, a republican congresswoman from Kentucky created a “faith-based” group through which she could hand out federal money to the local black community in which she had previously been unpopular. A local community leader, Reverend C. Mackey Daniels told Church and State, “I can’t paint a clearer picture. The support was given in order to get votes.” Similar tactics were used by Robert Ehrlich in his campaign to become governor of Maryland. [vii] In 2006, MSNBC reported that David Kuo, a former top faith-based initiative official who resigned in his position in 2003 has alleged that Ken Mehlman, who was then the White House political director, gave “marching orders” to use the faith-based initiative as cover for campaign publicity in 20 House and Senate races. The Los Angeles Times reports that according to Kuo, “Throughout the 2002 and 2004 campaigns, faith based officials would meet with lawmakers in some places in an effort to generate publicity for them, while also hosting conferences in battleground states attracting hundreds of pastors and community activists eager to learn how to apply for federal grants.” [viii] Once again, the unspoken suggestion that votes produce grants hovers over these accusations. Mehlman would join the ranks of Haley Barbour and Ed Gillespie as chairman of the Republican National Committee in 2005. Kuo wasn’t the only conservative Christian to resign from the Bush administration feeling the Religious Right was being made a pawn of completely un-Christian interests. John J. Dilulio Jr., the first director of the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiaties resigned after only seven months in the position, calling the White House political staff a bunch of “Mayberry Machiavellians” who put politics ahead of the public service they claimed to be providing. [ix]
Elsewhere, non-political abuses have surfaced, again demonstrating a complete disinterest by the Bush Administration in maintaining a component of accountability in a program that blatantly caters to its political base, the so-called Religious Right. The Washington Post reported on a Salt Lake City faith-based group that received federal funding for a federal rehabilitation program that allegedly forced people to work as telemarketers for 28 cents per hour or be returned to prison and then withheld all payment for the prisoners’ work. Pastor Gary Heldreth was hired by FEMA to build a base camp for first responders in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, even though, in his own words, “the closest think I have done to his is just organize a youth camp with my church.” When Heldreth failed to do the work for which he was paid $5.2 million, the government had to pay another contractor to finish the job.
The connections of those who receive such funds to the Bush administration have also raised concerns about the lack of transparency involved in the initiative. For example, consider Reverend Lusk of Philadelphia who not only endorsed the Bush campaign, but also hosted “Justice Sunday III.” Lusk then received a $1 million faith-based grant for his church. Meanwhile, The Children’s Crusade, a mentoring program that, according to an editorial in Church and State, won national honors, “lost all its budget of half a million dollars.” [x]
Additionally, a report by the Roundtable on Religion and Social Welfare Policy states that Bush has extended his faith-based initiative into almost every area of the executive branch. According to the report, religious groups “are now involved in government-encouraged activities ranging form building strip malls for economic improvement to promoting car seats.” [xi] Richard Nathan, the director of the Rockefeller Institute of Government sponsoring the roundtable said, “Few if any presidents in recent history have reached as deeply into or as broadly across the government to implement a presidential initiative administratively.” [xii] The particularly disturbing aspect of this expansion is that much of it has occurred without congressional authorization through executive order. There are now faith-based offices in ten federal agencies, including the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Agriculture, and the Department of Veterans Affairs. [xiii]
Taken as a whole, the secret negotiations of the government with at least one religious group, the examples of political manipulation and payback, the misuse of taxpayer money, the lack of accountability and congressional approval, and the President’s political dependency on the Religious Right all culminate in the strong suggestion that the faith-based initiative is secretly being used to payback political supporters within the Alliance and to entrench a key base of the Alliance within the legal structure of our government to the Alliance’s advantage. The doctrine of the Separation of Church and State was created specifically to prevent the stealth institutionalization of religious manipulation within the government for the purpose of locking up political control of the government by one party or group of elite power brokers who would then use their power to oppress the people for their own gain. The evasion of congressional oversight, of full disclosure of who receives what benefits and of the qualifications and connections of the funding recipients, and the expansion of the program throughout the executive branch of government without congressional approval make this challenge to fundamental principles of constitutional law a secretive executive branch platform capable of causing long lasting problems for our democracy.
copyright © 2007 by Hank Edson
[i] http://theocracywatch.org/faith-base.htm, citing The Washington Post, January 4, 2005.
[ii] “White House, Salvation Army Strike Secret Deal on Discrimination Through Faith Based Initiative,” Americans United for Separation of Church and State, July 10, 2001, http://www.commondreams.org/news2004/0817-02.htm http://www.commondreams.org/news2001/0710-05.htm.
[iii] “Alleged White House Retreate On Employment Discrimination Is Just A Shell Game, Says AU,” Americans United for Separation of Church and State, July 11, 2001 Press Release, http://www.commondreams.org/news2001/0711-02.htm.
[iv] http://theocracywatch.org/faith-base.htm, quoting Daniel Zwerdling, who produced two segments on the faith-based initiative in September 2003.
[v] Thomas B. Edsall, Sarah Cohen and James V. Grimaldi, “Pioneers Fill War Chest, Then Capitalize,” The Washington Post, May 15, 2004, http;//www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29142-2004May15.html.
[vi] http://theocracywatch.org/faith-base.htm, quoting Sierra, January-February 2004.
[vii] http://theocracywatch.org/faith-base.htm, quoting Church and State, Sept. 2003 and Americans United for Separation of Church and State, January 4, 2005.
[viii] Peter Wallsten, “Book: Bush Aides Called Evangelicals ‘Nuts,’” The Los Angeles Times, October 13, 2006, http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1013-02.htm.
[ix] Peter Wallsten, “Book: Bush Aides Called Evangelicals ‘Nuts,’” The Los Angeles Times, October 13, 2006, http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1013-02.htm.
[x] http://theocracywatch.org/faith-base.htm.
[xi] “Bush ‘Faith-Based’ Agneda Spreading in Federal Government, Report Finds: Initiative Ignores Constitutional Principles and Civil Rights Protections, Says Americans United, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, August 17, 2004,
[xii] Don Lattin, “Bush’s Faith-Based Changes Scrutinized,” The San Francisco Chronicle, August 17, 2004, http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0817-06.htm.
[xiii] Don Lattin, “Bush’s Faith-Based Changes Scrutinized,” The San Francisco Chronicle, August 17, 2004, http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0817-06.htm.