USA, September 28, 2005: The Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy is the president of The Interfaith Alliance, the national non-partisan advocacy voice of the interfaith movement. His article raises questions from the Christian community and others in the US regarding accepting government. It reads in part:
Compounding the federal government’s stumbling and tragically inadequate response to Hurricane Katrina, now FEMA has announced that it will reimburse churches and other religious organizations for their charity work and expenses. This ill-advised, unconstitutional plan raises a number of immediate concerns. These include the separation of religion and government, political expedience and accountability. Then there’s the possible specter of the government inspecting the financial records of houses of worship to determine which ones will receive taxpayer dollars, how much the reimbursements will be and how those funds can be spent. Now more than ever, government needs to do its job and let the religious community do our job, without confusing the two. Many politicians–even those who use a lot of religious language–evidently still do not understand religion. Religious people and our institutions do not need government officials calling us to service in the midst of tragedy, and we do not need government money financing our ministries. As the pastor of a church in Monroe, La., I have been privileged to work alongside members of my congregation and others from our community in a variety of relief efforts involving spiritual, logistical and financial issues. The personal and religious compassion that I have witnessed began even before Katrina hit the Gulf Coast. The religious community has been focused on comforting the grieving, caring for the hurting, housing the displaced, finding jobs for those without paychecks and speaking of hope to the despairing. Now, we also have to contend with political opportunists exploiting a national tragedy to push their agenda of government funding for favored religions–a policy that has never been approved by the Congress or the courts. The Constitutional guarantees of freedom for religion and freedom from religion have done more good for religion, the nation, and religion-based charity than ever can be accomplished by direct government funding of politically favored religious organizations.
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