Faith-based groups challenged by lawsuits over use of federal funds

[struggle4progress]

BY FRANK JAMES
Chicago Tribune <edit: format>

WASHINGTON - Faith-based groups are barred from proselytizing or engaging in other obvious religious activity when using federal funds to encourage teenagers to abstain from premarital sex or help substance abusers fight addictions.

But a number of groups may have run afoul of that federal prohibition. Lawsuits by the American Civil Liberties Union, Americans United for the Separation of Church and State and the Freedom from Religion Foundation accuse the faith-based organizations and the government of violating the constitutional separation of church and state. Meanwhile, experts say the Bush administration is doing too little to monitor religious groups receiving federal money. <snip>

"There is little to no monitoring of faith content of services," Frederica Kramer, a scholar at the Urban Institute, a research organization here, said at a recent panel discussion on faith-based groups. Only the financial and auditing aspects of the social-service arrangements get scrutiny, said Kramer, who with other researchers published a report last year on faith-based groups they studied in Birmingham, Ala., Boston and Denver.

According to the federal rules, faith-based groups receiving government aid for social service programs may not use federal dollars for any "inherently religious" activities. Further, participation in religious activities by someone who receives assistance must clearly be voluntary. And people receiving government money to fight substance abuse must be offered a non-religious alternative if they voice discomfort with the use of a faith-based provider. <snip>

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