FAITH-BASED HELP GOES BEYOND PAPERWORK

Some groups are reacting oddly to the president's plan to establish the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, which is a long title for the process of opening more doors for religious charities to get government funding.

Those groups are criticizing the idea primarily over concerns about the separation of church and state. But the Bush adviser overseeing the office's establishment, former Indianapolis mayor Stephen Goldsmith, is correct when he says such criticism reflects a basic misunderstanding of how the program could work.

First of all, the president isn't suggesting government abdicate its responsibility to educate our children or to feed and house those who haven't been given or accepted the opportunity to do so for themselves.

But it's clear that traditional welfare programs in the United States haven't been successful, and one reason is government can't take a holistic approach to solving problems. Faith-based charities tend to care about patrons past solving the immediate need. They don't take a purely bureaucratic viewpoint.

Instead, they want to address the total person, the lifestyle that got someone into trouble in the first place. What possibly could be wrong with a drug addict discovering religious compassion in the course of receiving assistance with food and shelter?

There are so many examples of what faith-based initiatives do in Southeast Missouri. Perhaps the most visible is the Salvation Army Tree of Lights campaign, with its bell-ringers and bright red collection kettles.

The Salvation Army is a organized Christian outreach ministry. Members study Bible-based doctrine and hold regular services like any other Christian church. Yet who wouldn't applaud the Salvation Army for its work with the homeless? For the soup kitchens? For the utility assistance program?

Here is an organization with the tools in place to help the nation's underprivileged, so why can't they get dollars currently being sent to less effective government programs bogged down in bureaucracy and paperwork?

Yet Goldsmith, as head of Bush's new push, has made clear that any government funds filtered to these organizations cannot be used for evangelism, thus preserving the constitutional separation of church and state.

Those who would criticize the president's plan should ask themselves one question:

Has the status quo cured our nation's ills?