To the Editor:
As a faculty member, I am reluctant to write an unsolicited letter to the student newspaper, but feel that the issue I wish to address is one of a timely importance. Our country is currently at the brink of a political crisis that may lead to war in Iraq. The matter is pressing, and one that not one of us can ignore or be ignorant of.
Although the prospect of war is the first item on our political radar these days, there are other matters that deserve our attention and action. Indeed, while we are looking to and focusing on foreign affairs, much of our domestic agenda in the United States is slowly being eroded before our eyes. One issue that has significant relevance for us as members of a Jesuit university community is the Faith Based Initiative proposed by President George W. Bush in 2001, blocked by the Senate later that year, and then enacted in part through an executive order in December 2002.
In a nutshell, the initiative seeks to grant federal, tax-payer monies to religious-based organizations that provide important social services such as job counseling to the unemployed, family planning to young, unwed mothers, and food and meals for homeless citizens (and non-citizens).
This past month, during the heated debates over whether or not inspectors in Iraq had identified a smoking gun permitting us to wage war, President Bush proposed a further plan to grant government funding to religious institutions to build places of worship that include spaces devoted to social services. Notably, the President also repeatedly mentioned faith-based charities in his State of the Union address in January. As good as the activities of religious-based charities are and their outcomes might be, the Faith Based Initiative gives me cause for concern. The separation of Church and State is at the foundation of our constitution, and this initiative threatens to violate that separation outright. But more than that, this initiative opens the door to the social ill of open discrimination and the appearance of proselytizing activity being sanctioned by the federal government.
I write these words with full respect and encouragement for those religious groups who help the less fortunate members of society. Although the matter of the Faith-Based Initiative is not one that intends to pit one denomination against another, there is legitimate concern that the initiative would favor Evangelical houses of worship, and specifically some that openly discriminate against groups of citizens on the basis of skin color or sexual orientation.
Sincerely, Jesús Escobar Professor of Art History
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