Let's play "Let's Pretend": You are a single mother currently receiving public assistance. You're probably white, since the majority of single mothers receiving assistance are. You don't have a car, you live in a depressed area, and your job skills are minimal. Let's add that you left the father of your child because he was violent and abusive. So you decide to participate in a job training program funded by the Federal government, under the 1996 Welfare Reform law. There is such a program within walking distance, and they even provide child care while you're training. The only problem is that the program is run by a Islamic fundamentalist group, while you are a devout Christian. But, hoping for the best, you sign up for it anyway.
Upon entering the program, you find that each session begins with a Muslim prayer, and readings from the Qur'an and the Hadith on the duties and proper behavior of women. You are chided for speaking of your husband's faults, and told you must cover your face and body completely while attending the training. While this is happening, your child is in the daycare center, being instructed in Muslim beliefs, antithetical to your own, such as the belief that Jesus was not a divine being, and that one need not believe in the divinity of Christ or in his resurrection in order to go to heaven.
Can they do that? Do you have to take that?
Yes, they can do that, under a little known, but significant, provision of the 1996 Welfare Reform law. Under this provision, often referred to as "Charitable Choice" religious institutions are eligible to receive federal funds to run such programs "without impairing the religious character" of the organization. Which means that they can require you to be present during religious activities, and they can preach their religion to you during the delivery of such federally-funded services.
Do you have to take it? Well, not legally, but as a practical matter, it may be your only choice. Under the law, you may object to the religious nature of the service being provided, and the State is required to find you another accessible, substantially equal, non-religious program - if one exists. But the chances that another program within walking distance would exist is virtually nil. And the State is not required to provide transportation to any such alternative program. So, as a practical matter, yes, you have to take it, if you want the job training you need to make a better life for you and your child.
The system of providing block-grants to states for welfare programs, which replaced the old entitlement system, makes it even more likely that welfare services such as job training and daycare will be provided by faith-based organizations. Many States don't have the facilities or personnel to deliver such services, and - according to an article by Karen Houppert in The Nation - many don't seem to have the inclination to do so either. So, for many women, the only choice available to them will be to either sacrifice their freedom of religion, or sacrifice their hopes for a better life. I believe that no one in America should be asked to make that choice.
What do you think? Should religious organizations be allowed to use taxpayer dollars to run federal programs in which they actively promote their religion?
Karen