The Continuing Push to Give Tax Dollars to Religious Organizations
Why It's So Dangerous
Published 05/03/04
President Bush continues to push his plan to give tax dollars to religious organizations to provide social services, despite opposition from the civil rights, religious, social service and labor communities. The plan to give tax money to churches and other religious groups is often referred to as "charitable choice."
What Is "Charitable Choice"?
Churches, synagogues and other houses of worship are permitted to hire only members of their religion under the religious exemption to Title VII of the federal Civil Rights Act, as long as they are using their own private funds. But religious groups cannot engage in religious discrimination when they're using tax dollars. "Charitable choice" would change that, to allow religious organizations to both receive government funding and discriminate. In addition, "charitable choice" allows religious institutions that provide social services to use tax dollars to spread their religious messages and gain new members. This violates the U.S. Constitution's prohibition on government funding of religious activity.
What Makes "Charitable Choice" Dangerous?
Religious organizations like Lutheran Social Services, United Jewish Communities, and Catholic Charities have received government funding for social services for many years. But historically these groups have abided by the same rules as every other government contractor - i.e. they receive public dollars but they don't discriminate against their employees and don't use government money to preach. The danger of "Charitable Choice" and other efforts to funnel government funding to religious groups is that it removes those limitations. So an organization like the United Methodist Home for Children can take government money but refuse to hire Jews or gay people because they don't comport with the Home's religious requirements.
"Charitable Choice" also allows an organization like United Methodist Home for Children to take tax dollars to provide services to youth and then make all the young people in its care attend Methodist worship services, regardless of their religious beliefs. This means that tax dollars are directly paying for religious teaching, something that our Constitution absolutely forbids.
In addition, "Charitable Choice" allows deeply religious (or "pervasively sectarian") organizations like the United Methodist Home for Children to substitute their religious agenda for sound professional youth services. So, religious organizations like the United Methodist Home for Children can use tax dollars to pay for services that stigmatize lesbian and gay youth, force them to hide who they are or even undergo destructive "therapy" to try to change, even though child welfare professionals uniformly agree that such practices are unsound and dangerous.
