American Jewish Committee Rejects Charitable Choice

American Jewish Committee
Wednesday, 6 June 2001

The American Jewish Committee today told the Senate Judiciary Committee that the Bush administration's "charitable choice" approach to government funding of social services is "bad public policy" and an unconstitutional breach of the principle of separation of church and state.

"Charitable choice is an untenable approach because it is founded on a conceptual paradox," Richard Foltin, legislative director and counsel of the American Jewish Committee, said in his testimony (www.ajc.org).

"It seeks to allow government to utilize the spiritual ministry of churches, synagogues and other pervasively religious institutions as a tool in providing social services, while assuring that beneficiaries of these services are protected from religious coercion and that religious institutions are protected from undue interference by the state," Foltin said.

"Practically, and constitutionally, it is impossible to reconcile these inconsistent goals," Foltin told the Senate committee.

AJC, which released in February a landmark report, "In Good Faith: A Dialogue on Government Funding of Faith-Based Social Services," maintains that instead of "charitable choice" the government can play an important role in furthering the historically important work of churches, synagogues and mosques by helping to publicize the variety of existing social service programs and by encouraging charitable contributions through appropriate tax relief. At the same time, AJC supports the historic partnerships between government and religiously affiliated organizations that are not pervasively religious, including government funding of social services provided by those organizations.

Mr. Foltin asserted that "pervasively religious groups receiving government funds simply will be unable or unwilling to disassociate their religion-teaching mission from the provision of social service for which they are receiving government funds."

Earlier this year Administration officials said that under the Bush plan "programs funded by faith-based organizations could include religious content, such as Bible reading," Mr. Foltin told the Senate Committee. "But even more troubling was the testimony by John Castellani, executive director of Teen Challenge, a religiously infused Christian substance abuse program, who told a House subcommittee on May 25 that some Jews participating in the program had become 'completed Jews' by accepting Jesus."

Voicing the deep concern that under "charitable choice" recipients of government-funded services "may well be coerced, either explicitly or tacitly to take part in religious activities as a price of receiving help," Mr. Foltin told the Senators that "there could be no clearer a violation of core constitutional concerns than for taxpayer dollars to flow to an organization engaged in proselytizing, such as Teen Challenge."

Mr. Foltin stressed that claims of proponents of "charitable choice" notwithstanding, the courts have not abandoned the prohibition on government funding of pervasively religious institutions, "a prohibition which is grounded in the core Constitutional concern that the state not be allowed to utilize its taxing authority to fund religion."

Other concerns raised by Mr. Foltin include:

- "Charitable choice" presents a significant potential for fostering divisiveness among various faith groups as they compete for public funding, a potential that will only multiply as government officials assume the role of deciding which religion "works better."

- "Charitable choice" allow religious providers to make employment decisions based on religion with respect to the employees hired to provide taxpayer-funded services.

- Government oversight of how funds are used will lead to the kind of intrusion into the affairs of pervasively religious organizations, which is exactly the type of entanglement of religion and state against which the Constitution guards.

For more information, or to contact American Jewish Committee, see their website at: www.ajc.org