(RNS) — Influenced by a prominent pastor and a layman who led a prison ministry, George W. Bush in his first presidential administration embarked on an ambitious goal: to partner the federal government with faith-based groups.
The concept already existed during the Clinton administration through a federal welfare reform provision known as “charitable choice” that permitted religious organizations to receive government funding if they allowed their beneficiaries to receive social services without religious coercion. But Bush codified it with what was initially called the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives in the White House that included 11 Cabinet-level departments.
“Government can hand out money, but it cannot put hope in a person’s heart or a sense of purpose in a person’s life,” became a Bush mantra.
In his 2010 memoir “Decision Points,” the former president credited Tony Evans, then the pastor of a predominantly Black church in Dallas, and Chuck Colson, Watergate felon-turned-evangelical advocate for prisoners, with helping him see the value of faith-based programs receiving government support.
Now, 25 years later, all the Democratic and Republican presidential administrations that have followed included some form of the so-called White House faith-based office.
Though some critiqued the office as inappropriate mixing of church and state, Bush argued in his memoir that “government need not fear religion” even as it “should never impose religion.” The Republican president aimed to create a nonpartisan initiative, choosing Democrats as the first two leaders appointed to direct the office: John DiIulio, a University of Pennsylvania professor, and Jim T …