In “Bad Faith”: The Corruption of Charitable Choice

Abstract

The Faith-Based Initiative was the centerpiece of President George W. Bush’s domestic social agenda. In many respects, it could be rated as the most successful of Bush’s domestic policies. Within days of assuming office, President Bush breathed life into Charitable Choice, a provision in the 1996 Welfare Reform law that allows religious social service providers to compete for government grants and contracts, and took the provision to heights the law’s original sponsors could only have imagined. In his rush to empower his religious “armies of compassion” and restructure the legal and normative relationships between church and state, Bush corrupted the very program he sought to make his legacy. Although the original justifications for Charitable Choice were weak, the initial program had the promise of achieving some good by acknowledging the positive and indispensable role of religious providers in the government-funded social service system. If it had been administered in a neutral and nonpartisan manner, Charitable Choice could have served as a springboard for important discussions about the role of faith in a modern corporatist society and how to improve on collaborations between the government and religious institutions that would benefit the commonwealth.