With the second major Executive Order of his Presidency, Bush established a "White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives" to help faith-based and community organizations receive federal funds to deliver social services. A companion Executive Order required the Attorney General, the Secretary of Education, the Secretary of Labor, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, and the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development to establish a "Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives" within their respective departments. The purpose of these Centers would be "to coordinate department efforts to eliminate regulatory, contracting, and other programmatic obstacles to the participation of faith-based and other community organizations in the provision of social services."

Bush also announced that he would send Congress a package of legislative proposals to further assist faith-based and community organizations. The package would include additional proposals to eliminate regulatory barriers to tax-payer funding of faith-based social programs; to allow increased deductions for charitable giving; to create a "compassionate capital fund," to provide start-up money for new religious and community based programs; and to encourage religious groups to provide services such as after-school programs for children, job training, drug treatment, prison rehabilitation programs and abstinence programs.

Civil rights groups have already expressed doubt regarding the constitutionality of Bush's "initiative" to commingle Church and State. Some groups point to concerns that allowing faith based organizations to "incorporate" their religion into tax-payer funded social services amounts to unconstitutional government sponsorship of religious messages. The ACLU points out that, in Texas, "regulatory relief" meant that religious organizations were not required to hire trained and licensed counselors and therapists to deliver mental health, drug treatment, and other crucial services. Also of concern to civil libertarians - and to some church groups - is the specter of government audits of church books as part of agencies' oversight of the use of federal funds. Religious leaders have expressed concern that the temptation to qualify for federal tax dollars might cause some religious organizations to compromise their message in order to benefit from this new source of revenue.

In a somewhat ironic twist, some opponents also cite the "fungibility of money" principle in opposition to the program. Perhaps this principle is fresh in their minds since it was so recently argued by supporters of Bush's first Executive Order, which reinstated the "Mexico City Policy." This policy, known to opponents as the "global gag rule," prohibits federal funds from going to international family planning organizations that, with their own funds, counsel, promote or provide abortions. Supporters of this policy forcefully argued that the "fungibility of money" gave the U.S. Government the right to tell organizations what they can do with their own money. Money which funds non-abortion-related activities, they said, has the effect of funding abortion-related activities, because every U.S. dollar an organization spends on non-abortion-related activities frees a dollar of their own money for spending on abortion-related activities.

But the fungibility principle has been operating for many years with respect to religious organizations' charitable works. A number of religious organizations already receive government funding to deliver social services through "affiliated" organizations. Under existing rules, these affiliated organizations cannot deliver those services in a "pervasively sectarian" - that is, overtly religious - manner. But does anyone really doubt that, for every U.S. tax-payer dollar the Catholic Church spends through it's affiliated "Catholic Charities" organization, a dollar is freed to spend opposing the abortion rights that over two thirds of Americans support?

It should be noted though, in launching his "Faith Based Initiative," the President seemed blissfully unaware of the principle of fungibility. "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 in a speech announcing the initiative. When questioned on this apparent double standard by Democratic Representative Nancy Pelosi, Bush seemed confused as to what his reinstatement of the "Global Gag Rule" actually did. Bush's response, Democrats said, implied he thought his Executive Order had outlawed only the direct financing of abortions. Bush spokesman Scott McClellan rejected any suggestion the president was confused or unaware of what is banned under the executive order, describing the encounter with Pelosi as a "disagreement over this issue."

While fungibility is a concern of many, Bush's faith-based initiative involves far more than tax dollars indirectly subsidizing activities some tax-payers find abhorrent. The initiative, like the Charitable Choice provision in the 1996 Welfare Reform law, provides for direct funding of activities some taxpayers find abhorrent. For example, religious organizations are exempt from non-discrimination laws that government and non-religious organizations must follow in their employment policies. Sending tax-payer dollars to religious organizations while maintaining this exemption amounts to tax-payer funded discrimination.

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