|
NEWS
| October 31, 2003
Nation
President promotes faith-based programs
Opinions on campus vary after
the president pushes his idea at a Dallas church.
By Kateryna
Ivanova
The Shorthorn staff
Some students and faculty have varying opinions regarding President
George W. Bush’s initiative to triple the amount of federal
funding for religious organizations.
Bush has said his initiative would raise federal spending for religious
groups by billions of dollars nationwide. Organizations that strongly
impact their communities through medical, marital and business advice
are some that would qualify.
After Congress stalled its decision on federal funding for faith-based
organizations, Bush took the matter into his hands and signed an
executive order giving heads-up to religious programs willing to
compete for the money.
He announced this step at the Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship Church
on Wednesday evening, where his entourage met a crowd of swinging
posters and shouts for justice, the Associated Press reported.
“We should not focus on the religion you practice but on results
it produces,” Bush said. “We want all to feel a part
of the future of this country. This country should support the armies
of compassion.”
Organizations aiming to improve their communities should be given
appropriate means to do so, he said. No faith should be discriminated
against when it comes to funding, he added.
“The government can hand out money — and we will —
but they can’t put hope in people’s hearts,” Bush
said, adding that he himself had experienced the benefits of faith-based
programs. “People need to know that there’s higher power
that’s bigger than their problems.”
Shyam Venugopal, a mechanical engineering graduate student, said
he does not understand why the money should fund faith-based projects.
“I know they mean well, but I think the religious organizations
should go to the community they’re servicing and get the money
from them,” he said.
Instead, the government needs to put the money into the programs
that are really desperate for it, such as shelters or veteran support
organizations, he said.
Aerospace engineering freshman Justin Kooker disagrees. He said
he supports the president’s initiative. Bush is the first
president he knows of to publicly promote faith-based programs,
he added.
“It’s great that the leader of our country helps to
spread support for religious programs,” he said.
Bush’s faith-based initiative will inevitably end up entangling
religion into government, Barry Lynn, the director of Americans
United for Separation of Church and State, told the Associated Press
on Wednesday.
Some students and faculty also worry the government will end up
paying for religion.
José Gutierrez, an associate political science professor,
said the president is blurring the line between church and state.
The government should not subsidize religious organizations, he
said.
“I don’t want my tax dollars to go to church groups,”
Gutierrez said, adding that people who attend churches should support
the institutions themselves.
Bush said he justifies the spending because the money would allow
an opportunity for suburban churches to participate in improving
lives.
“The separation of church and state should never be equated
with separation of God and good works,” said Anthony Evans,
Oak Cliff church’s senior pastor.
Bush said Wednesday he could not agree more.
The church should not become the state, and the state should not
turn into a church, he said. Neither should the government focus
on particular religious groups and programs, he added.
Shriram Venkataramanan, an aerospace engineering graduate student,
said the president’s impartiality to religious groups is a
praiseworthy gesture. There are many religions in the United States
other than Christianity, Venkataramanan said, and it is great that
the president remains open-minded to them. But he also thinks it
is odd Bush is promoting the initiative.
“For a person in such a high level, it’s kind of strange
to talk about religion directly,” he said.
|
|
