Faith-Based Recovery Plan

Rev. C. Welton Gaddy

August 31, 2006

The Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy leads The Interfaith Alliance, pastors a Baptist church in Monroe, Louisiana, and serves as host of “State of Belief,” a nationally-syndicated program on Air America Radio.

Last year, I evacuated the Gulf Coast only hours before Hurricane Katrina crashed ashore. Like most Americans and much of the world, I watched on television as my fellow brothers and sisters desperately tried to escape their flooded neighborhoods, thousands of them calling out for help from rooftops and overpasses day after agonizing day. I cannot remember a time in my life when I felt so angry, so ashamed, so helpless.

In October, along with an interfaith delegation of Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Jews, I walked the streets of destroyed cities and towns, met with relief workers and public officials, and listened to people whose lives were devastated by Katrina. I also saw religious organizations, compassionate volunteers, and many local officials working tirelessly to bring relief.

But one year after the hurricanes the question still rings out: When will the federal government do its job of helping those citizens rebuild their lives and their towns? We must not allow the failures of government officials to become an excuse to shift their responsibilities to religious organizations and thereby destroy evacuees’ religious freedom as surely as Katrina destroyed their homes.

Government officials have patronized religious people about the importance of our work in this disaster—and the Bush administration has repeatedly bypassed certified, proven social service agencies in order to channel taxpayer dollars to religious, sectarian organizations that haven’t met legal standards and exercise religious discrimination against potential employees and aid recipients. Providing for the public welfare is a constitutional duty and a moral responsibility of government. But the administration is using this tragic situation to establish government-sponsored religion that the public doesn’t support, Congress has never approved, and the Constitution prohibits.

Houses of worship and religious organizations have answered the call to minister to the sick, hungry and poor. They will continue to provide shelters and programs for evacuees with little idea of where the necessary money will come from. But they should not be expected to replace FEMA. Because many government leaders reacted so poorly, the religious community and many community groups have been left holding an empty bag with no relief in sight.

Because faith based groups responded so well during this crisis, some government officials have suggested that the president’s White House Office of Community and Faith-Based Initiatives should be given permanent status in the Executive Branch. I could not disagree more strongly. The faith-based initiative is a prima facie example of manipulation, not coordination.

Neither in a time of crisis nor in normal times do we need a faith-based office in the White House. We have faith-based offices all over this nation and they are where they belong—in synagogues and gurdwaras, in mosques and churches, in temples and store-front ministry centers.

Neither religious programs nor religious ministries should be dictated from the White House or legislated from the halls of Congress; this is not how religion best serves the nation. Religious organizations must remain independent, even when the government is failing in its duties.  Religion thrives on freedom, not on imposition.

The religious community, charitable agencies, and compassionate individuals will continue to respond to people in need, but they cannot and must not replace the government or absolve it of its duties. We need a partnership between religious institutions, the federal government and private philanthropy that draws upon their respective resources and protects the integrity of all.