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YOU ARE HERE: Current Issues >> Religious Issues >> Interfaith Affairs

United Synagogue Opposes Faith-Based Initiative

July 2001

The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism has announced its opposition to the faith-based initiative currently before Congress. Particularly troublesome is the "charitable choice" component of President Bush's plan -- the part that would allow synagogues, churches and other religious organizations to receive government funds for their social service programs.

According to Rabbi Jerome Epstein, USCJ Executive Vice-President, "Charitable choice violates the separation of church and state by allowing the government to fund religion. If government money were to fund a synagogue's drug treatment program, for example, it would be nearly impossible for the synagogue to separate the religious from the secular components of the program. Any 'successful' attempt to take the faith out of the faith-based in this program would come at the expense of the religious organization's lost religious liberty and the program's lost effectiveness."

The organization further notes that under charitable choice, houses of worship may compete for government grants and contracts, but not all will receive the money. Putting religious organizations through the appropriations process will force the government to pick and choose among religions.

USCJ President Stephen S. Wolnek points out that "experience and common sense tell us that it is not the minority but the majority faiths that will receive the government's financial blessing."

Sarrae Crane, Director of the United Synagogue's Commission on Social Action and Public Policy, also suggests that charitable choice may actually provide those in pain with less relief from the government than is available under the current system. There is no new funding under the Bush initiative, only a proposed redistribution of the funds, at times from tested to untested programs.

Additionally, since the religious organizations receiving the money would retain some of their religious liberty rights, as granted by the First Amendment, adequate accountability for and assessment of government funds would be impossible, given the prohibition on excessive entanglement between church and state.

According to Rabbi Epstein, religious organizations and the government should be challenged to find better ways to cooperate in providing social services, including non-financial ways, such as sharing information and exchanging volunteers. He notes that "religious organizations play a vital role in helping those in need in our society. The only debate is on how to structure and fund that role."

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