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18 Sivan 5759 - June 2, 1999 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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Reform, Orthodox Square Off on Charitable Choice

by B. Isaac

The issue of "charitable choice" has touched off a spate of conflicting comments among an assortment of American Jewish groups, after Vice President Al Gore endorsed that idea of enlisting religious organizations to provide social services to the needy.

In a speech at the Salvation Army's Adult Rehabilitation Center in Atlanta, Mr. Gore called for government funding of "faith-based organizations to help them provide jobs and job training, counselling and mentoring, food and basic medical care."

Under the "New Partnership" program the Vice President proposed, religious institutions could receive federal funds for drug treatment programs, services for the homeless and initiatives to combat youth violence. But the groups would not be forced "to alter the religious character that is so often the key to their effectiveness," Mr. Gore said.

"Freedom of religion," the Vice President said, "need not mean freedom from religion."

Among the critics of the Vice President's comments was the American Civil Liberties Union and the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism.

However, Agudas Yisroel of America and the Orthodox Union praised Mr. Gore for his courage in taking what is, in some circles, an unpopular stand.

"That your endorsement of a greater role for religious entities in addressing social problems is deemed controversial is a sad commentary on the harmful rigidity that so often characterizes church-state rhetoric," Chaim Dovid Zwiebel, Agudas Yisroel's executive vice president for government and public affairs, wrote the Vice President. "Perhaps your statement will encourage some fresh thinking on this vital subject."

Agudas Yisroel has long championed legislation to make it easier for religious organizations to participate in government social service programs. It was one of the earliest supporters of the original version of "charitable choice," which was sponsored by Missouri Senator John Ashcroft in an amendment to the Welfare Reform Act of 1996.

Agudas Yisroel has worked with Senator Ashcroft in developing an expanded version of the proposal, which was formally introduced the day after the Vice President's remarks.

Addressing concerns that government funding for religious social service programs would dismantle the constitutional wall separating church and state, Agudas Yisroel's Washington Office director and counsel, Abba Cohen, noted that charitable choice programs often include significant inhibitions against the use of government funds for religious purposes.

Thus, such proposals disallow the funds being used for sectarian worship, instruction or proselytizing, and they also provide any beneficiary who objects to receiving services from a religious organization the right to receive them from an alternate provider.

Moreover, religious groups providing such government-funded services are required to make them available to all qualified beneficiaries.

"There is an important principle at stake here," Mr. Cohen said. "The foundations of faith and community that religious institutions provide are important components of an effective approach to many social problems this country faces. To exclude religious groups from the field of social services would be to drastically limit society's ability to address these problems."


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