Towey promotes the role of faith in public welfare

"The government can't love," said Jim Towey, director of the White House Office of Faith Based and Community Initiatives, today at a lecture titled "Compassion, the U.S. Constitution, and President Bush's Faith Based Initiative."

Towey extolled the benefits of government support for faith-based social services. He also defended the constitutionality of his program, which critics claim violates the First Amendment.

Towey once lived in a home for people with AIDS after being inspired by Mother Theresa, with whom he worked for 12 years. Towey served Sen. Mark Hatfield as a legislative director and legal counsel, and also served as head of Florida's health and social services agency during the administration of Democrat Lawson Chiles.

Existing social service programs fail to meet some people's needs, and faith-based programs can prove effective where other strategies have failed, Towey said.

"We see so many people left out . . . systematically shut out from society," he added.

Government is often hard-pressed to decide who should receive federal assistance. Who, Towey asked, will federal officials dispense food stamps to when there are so many who would gain greatly from such aid?

Everyone has a God-given dignity and "our culture degrades that dignity," Towey said.

Towey described how the government has tried to scrutinize faith-based initiatives. Social services somehow affiliated with religion sometimes have difficulty acquiring federal monetary aid, he said. In the past, programs with religious references in their title have been denied aid, he said.

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For instance, the Seattle Hebrew Academy was hit by an earthquake, and when the school asked for money from the government, it was denied because of the academy's name, Towey said.

The point of the initiative is not to fund faith, but to ensure the effectiveness of public programs, Towey said. Bush has turned down some religious-based social service programs, despite making funds more accessible, he said. Officials choosing which programs to fund look for efficiency, not the ability to instill religious faith. There is "no preaching on Uncle Sam's dollar," he said.

The government is not discriminatory in public funding, he said. The social service program must abide by certain stipulations, such as being completely voluntary.

Towey also discussed the role of religion in hiring. Critics have claimed it is discriminatory for a religion-based soup kitchen or other public aid program to hire only members of a certain faith.

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Yet, Towey argued, if the goals of an organization that has proven to be effective are grounded in a certain religion, the public service program will most likely benefit from hiring those who uphold the ideals of that religion.

Other ways in which the government has integrated faith-based programs include vouchers that make it more affordable for students to attend religious schools, and funding for faith-based prisons.

Funding for religious materials in prisons may seem absurd, but these programs are more effective than many normal penitentiaries, Towey said, because they produce fewer prisoners who have recurrent run-ins with the law.

"I don't know if you can't make government programs more compassionate," but they can be made more efficient, Towey said.