Church, state & money
Church, state & money In signing two executive orders designed to lower the barriers between religious institutions and the government funding of social services, President George W. Bush has set...
...ANDREW GALLIGAN Tracy, Calif...
...Good...
...Maybe that's why there is such massive apostacy among young people of marrying age, as well as so many who are married...
...REV...
...One wonders in what spatial reality their authors live...
...Vail, Colo...
...Of course, both will be decried by those who believe Catholics should all walk in lock step with any current papal teaching, especially in matters of sexual ethics...
...For the most part, that collaboration between church and state has worked well for both religious groups and the commonweal...
...Have they ever had any firsthand, practical experience with marriage...
...Oh well...
...The entire issue of human sexuality and the gospel tradition is, it seems to me, not so much a matter of church versus individual conscience...
...By the same token, however, the allocation of state funding need not favor secular over religious groups...
...In some cases, the advantages of such funding will far outweigh the dangers...
...In deciding who gets money, will government also be deciding what is or isn't a legitimate religion...
...We will work with what is effective," he says...
...The documents issuing from Rome and diocesan offices come across as totally abstract and divorced from real life...
...Both of these Commonweal articles are priceless and full of wisdom from men who have actually "been there and done that...
...Moreover, potential clients will be guaranteed a choice between faith-based and secular service programs...
...Still, as the ongoing debate about the Catholic identity of hospitals and universities suggests, the acceptance of government money entails a significant accommodation to the larger culture...
...Dilulio argues that "empirical methods" will be used to judge the relative merits of different service programs...
...Here, perhaps even more than in the problem of bureaucratic red tape, is where the real danger lies...
...But no such wall exists, either constitutionally or historically, nor should it...
...But even when the impact of the modern state is largely benign, it wields enormous power...
...We will not fund the religious activities of any group, but when people of faith provide social services, we will not discriminate against them," Bush said...
...6 (Continued from page 4) Lived wisdom Luke Timothy Johnson's persuasive article on John Paul II's theology of the body is perhaps the finest article of its kind I have read in forty years...
...To be sure, Luke Timothy Johnson will not be joining Avery Dulles at the next consistory...
...Or to the Church of Scientology, with its reputation for psychological manipulation and secrecy...
...Most of them have long ago put aside church teaching on birth control...
...In times of conflict, that power can turn repressive...
...What the Constitution does require is that government not favor one religion over another or religion generally over nonreligion...
...The devil, of course, is in the details...
...Will religious groups squander their already meager resources on administrative duties...
...24...
...I must admit, sadly, that in my thirty-six years as a priest, most married persons—and those to be married—with whom I have spoken feel that the church doesn't really address the complex problems couples face today...
...Americans have always brought religious values into the public square, sometimes to great benefit (the civil rights movement) and sometimes for ill (Prohibition...
...will want to forgo entanglement with the state...
...Although motivated by a largely unexamined antipathy toward "public" religion, the critics of Bush's initiative raise important concerns...
...Groups like Americans United for Separation of Church and State are in full cry, warning of the imminent destruction of the supposedly sacrosanct "wall of separation" between religion and government...
...We will help all in their work to change hearts while keeping a commitment to pluralism...
...Independent religious institutions represent an indispensable source of countervailing moral authority and social and political resistance to the state...
...Defenders of the Bush plan respond that funding will go only for social-service programs, such as soup kitchens, shelters, or drug-treatment programs, not to religious activities or evangelization...
...John J. Dilulio Jr., a respected social scientist, has been named head of the new White House initiative...
...A healthy politics must be informed by morality, and for the vast majority of Americans morality is inseparable from religion...
...GEORGE R. FITZGERALD, C.S.P...
...In other words, if the Church of Scientology runs a drug rehabilitation pro5 . gram that works and does not discriminate against non-Scientologists, it should be as eligible for government funding as any other religious or secular group...
...But in others, churches, synagogues, etc...
...MOST REV...
...Is anybody listening to them...
...Church, state & money In signing two executive orders designed to lower the barriers between religious institutions and the government funding of social services, President George W. Bush has set off a broad, and sometimes heated, debate about the proper relationship between church and state...
...Both religiously motivated people and determined secularists need to think hard about what is at stake in direct government support for the undeniable good done by religious groups for millions of needy and often forgotten Americans...
...Can the proselytizing ethos of some religious groups easily be separated from the touted efficacy of their programs...
...No red hat Luke Timothy Johnson's incisive critique of John Paul II's pronouncements on love, sex, and pleasure should be studied and openly discussed in every Catholi college and Newman Club in the nation—together with Paul Baumann's humorous reflections on George Weigel's biography of our pope ("Crossing the Threshold," December 3, 1999...
...Or to the Nation of Islam, whose leaders are known for their anti-Semitic diatribes...
...On different planets Luke Timothy Johnson's critique of Pope John Paul II's reflections on sexuality was the most theologically cogent and pastorally persuasive commentary I've read in years about Catholic sexual teaching...
...It's exciting to read something like Johnson's refreshing insights...
...A robust pluralism, in this area as in others, is the best guarantor of liberty...
...Each time we gather at the Lord's table, I see in his eyes, lo these many years later, the struggling wisdom that is so evident in Johnson's words...
...E. BRIAN CARSTEN Angola, Ind...
...Bush's creation of a White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, at least in outline, purports to adhere strictly to these vital distinctions...
...Think of how important religious opposition was to slavery, segregation, the war in Vietnam, and now to the practice of abortion and euthanasia...
...Government money also brings with it miles of red tape and restrictive regulations...
...Of course, government moneys have been flowing to religious hospitals and religious colleges and universities for decades...
...In my congregation there is a man who left his position as an active priest in the wake of Paul VI's Humanae vitae...
...Yes, constitutional protection of individual rights is high in the United States, and Brigham Young University or Notre Dame is still free to be as Mormon or as Catholic as it wishes...
...Initial response has been predictable enough...
...How long can we afford to lose this critically important segment of the Catholic church in favor of a moral theology of sexuality that appears so rigid and static...
...incorporate it...
...The writer is Metropolitan Archbishop of the Orthodox Catholic Church of America...
...Would that opposition have been as forthright and effective if churches depended on a government check for crucial aspects of their ministries...
...Do we really want taxpayer money going to someone like David Koresh...
...In accepting money from Washington, religious groups will inevitably sacrifice a degree of independence...
...Rather, it is about the church learning from the lived wisdom of her members and having the courage to (here is that word...
...But, alas, people like him who try to introduce fresh ways of looking at such questions, while preserving the deep values of our faith, often find the welcome mat snatched out from under 23 them...
...Opportunities for graft and corruption will multiply as well, temptations to which religious people are no more immune than anyone else...
Vol. 128 • February 2001 • No. 4
