BUSH POISED TO GIVE FEDERAL FUNDING TO CRIMINAL GROUPS LIKE SCIENTOLOGY
20 Feb 2001
boobookittyone@webtv.net (Tigger)
Excerpted from the Ney York Times, 20. Feb, 2001,
'Bush's Call to Church Groups Attracts the Untraditional'
PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 13 =97 After eight years in prison, Joseph Fabio now
lives in a halfway house ... where counselors have helped him steer
clear of drugs ... and contain the uncontrollable anger that earned him
a murder sentence at age 18.
His three months in the program have been "a blessing," hesaid his only
complaint was that for some reason the kitchen served nothing but
vegetarian food. When he was told that the cuisine was restricted
because this halfway house was affiliated with the Hare Krishnas, Mr.
Fabio looked as if he had been ambushed by "Candid Camera." For almost
20 years, Hare Krishna devotees in Philadelphia have received millions
of dollars in government contracts to run a network of services,
including a shelter for homeless veterans, transitional homes for
recovering addicts and this halfway house for parolees.
The unusual collaboration between government agencies and a religious
group that depicts God as a baby-faced boy with blue skin offers a
glimpse of the challenges ahead for President Bush's initiative to
expand government support for social service programs run by religious
organizations.
Mr. Bush's new White House Office of Faith-Based and Community
Initiatives officially opens for business on Feb.
20. The president says religious programs will be judged not on their
beliefs but on the results of their work.
=A0"We do not impose any religion," Mr. Bush said at a prayer breakfast
on Feb. 1. "We welcome all religion." The president's assertion may be
questioned in the coming days. While established charitable programs,
like those run by Catholic Charities and the Salvation Army, are
expected to have little trouble winning further government support, it
is the smaller programs run by less traditional faiths that are likely
to test the president's promise to avoid discriminating on the basis of
belief, and the public's acceptance of his approach.
=A0Now, members of a wide variety of religious groups, some once
considered far outside the mainstream, are busy preparing proposals for
government financing to support the kinds of programs that Mr. Bush has
said he will make his focus: literacy, sexual abstinence and substance
abuse. The Church of Scientology plans to seek support for its drug
rehabilitation and literacy programs.
Mr. Bush's effort could provoke new questions about what constitutes a
legitimate religion. One definition of religion likely to be applied
grows out of the Supreme Court's ruling in a 1965 case involving draft
exemptions. In that case, the court defined religion as "a sincere and
meaningful belief occupying in the life of its possessor a place
parallel to that filled by the God of those admittedly qualified for the
exemption." By any measure, the definition is broad.
=A0"One of the big issues that people haven't talked about much is that
some very controversial religions could get active in this," said Philip
Jenkins, the author of "Mystics and Messiahs: Cults and New Religions in
American history"(Oxford University Press, 2000), and a professor of
history and religious studies at Pennsylvania State University.
"Running a faith-based program raises the question, what faiths are out
of bounds?" Mr. Jenkins said. "Either you fund all faith groups, even
groups you radically don't like, or you fund none. I have nothing
against funding everybody, but I think people need to be prepared for
the issues that might arise. How do you distinguish between a Methodist
and a Moonie? The answer is, you can't."
There are a few clues so far to how the Bush administration will look on
proposals from less traditional religious groups. In an interview with
The New York Times during the campaign, Mr. Bush was asked if, for
example, he would approve of government financing for a Church of
Scientology antidrug program. He answered: "I have a problem with the
teachings of Scientology being
viewed on the same par as Judaism or Christianity. That just happens to
be a personal point of view. But I am interested in results. I am not
focused on the process."
For its part, the Church of Scientology, founded as Dianetics in the
1950's by the science-fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, claims it can
document the effectiveness of its literacy programs and its drug and
prisoner rehabilitation programs, Narconon and Criminon. In Oklahoma,
the church receives state money to treat drug addicts at Narconon
Chilocco, a Scientology rehabilitation center, said Kurt Weiland,
director of the Church of Scientology International. =A0=A0"In
Scientology, we believe in past lives and future lives," Mr. Weiland
said, adding that the church's programs are open to people of all
beliefs. "Nobody who does anything in drug rehabilitation or in literacy
programs has to formulate that belief in order to go through the
program."
NY Times, 20. Feb 2001 -- 'Bush's Call to Church Groups Attracts the
Untraditional'
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