Op-Ed Articles Respond to Bush's Faith-Based Initiative

January 31, 2001

Source: Los Angeles Times

On January 31, 2001, the Los Angeles Times published an op-ed piece on Bush's faith-based initiative by Tamar Galatzan, the Western states associate counsel for the Anti-Defamation League. She warned that "every component of these initiatives [supporting faith-based programs] must abide by legal and practical safeguards. For one thing, President Bush must ensure that recipients of federal funds comply with the requirements and restrictions that are imposed upon all government-funded activity by the religion clause of the 1st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution...No program beneficiary should be subjected to unwanted proselytizing when he or she receives government-funded social services, and secular alternatives to religiously provided services should be made available. Furthermore, Bush must make sure that taxpayer money does not fund religious discrimination in the hiring and firing of people who will deliver the services."