Blocking Funds for Faith-Based Treatment November 9, 2000
News Summary
A number of U.S. states are faced with lawsuits against allowing faith-based organizations to receive federal funding for providing social services, such as addiction treatment, the Associated Press reported Nov. 3.A recently filed Wisconsin lawsuit, for example, is trying to block the use of state government money for Faith Works, a Milwaukee program that helps troubled fathers by provinding treatment and job training.
As the U.S. Congress considers charitable choice proposals that give religious organizations a greater role in government-backed social missions, critics have increased efforts to challenge such funding in court, arguing that it blurs the line between church and state.
"It's absolutely incredible to believe you can have a religiously based program that isn't religious," said the Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. The group is tracking the dozen or so lawsuit against state policies allowing religious organizations to provide social services.
But Rep. Mark Souder (R-Ind.) believes that religious groups have the community ties needed to provide effective social services. "You cannot discriminate and use government programs for proselytizing," he said. "But if a group happens to have a religious component to their program not funded by the federal government, it does not mean that they have to drop everything else."
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