aith-Based office czar John DiIulio last weekend, in a little publicized event, announced that government funds could be used to rehabilitate thousands of churches and other religion-affiliated structures which are "civic assets" and serve as outreach centers for social programs.

   It is the first time that a Bush administration official has suggested that tax money be used to fund bricks-and-mortar style repairs to dilapidated houses of worship. Until now, DiIulio, head of the new White House Office for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, has said that funding would go only to the secular component of social services operated by religious organizations.

   At a banquet held in Philadelphia last Sunday by an obscure group known as "Partners for Sacred Places," DiIulio joined religious leaders and some preservationists in lamenting that the public is "behind the curve in thinking of our older religious properties as civic assets."

   "When those building crumble," he said, "when the deferred maintenance catches up, the preschool and the prison ministry and the day-care center and the after-school latchkey learning program .. crumble and go away, too. They just don't move to the Ramada Inn."

   A story in today's Philadelphia Inquirer notes that DiIulio hopes to challenge a 1995 administrative ruling which banned the use of federal National Park Service preservation money for rehabilitating or maintaining any religious properties. He said that the White House would consider that rule an "unfriendly" social policy.

   "We don't view it as historic preservation. We view it as community use and stewardship," gushed DiIulio. He added that since inner-city churches are often cash-poor, President Bush wants to use a "compassion capital fund" to make grants to houses of worship for "infrastructure improvements."

   DiIulio is the first government official on record as trying to link public funding and the new faith-based initiative to the "problem" of deteriorating churches and other houses of worship. For DiIulio, if religious groups are to operate social programs, government must also take a role in maintaining the physical "infrastructure" those programs are held in. Sunday's soiree was also the first time of record that government involvement is being seriously solicited in the effort to supplement private contributions and foundation grants in order to maintain or enhance church-affiliated property. The latter has been a goal of Partners for Sacred Places.

   Diane Cohen, an official with the Partners group, told the Inquirer that foundations and other granting agencies have several concerns: "Fear of supporting religious institutions in general, fear of favoring one faith over another, and the belief that they just don't support capital improvements." She estimated that 800 congregations in Philadelphia alone are trying to maintain facilities that are over sixty years old; about 200 are in "dire condition," she added.

   Indeed, "deteriorating sacred places" is becoming the buzz-phrase in the faith community and those seeking to expand the largesse of government in subsidizing religious programs and institutions. In 1997, Cohen's group issued a white paper, "Sacred Places At Risk" that chronicled the contributions of urban ministries and the decaying infrastructure of the inner-city church. John DiIulio, then a professor at Princeton, boosted the report in Washington and, according to the Inquirer, "said the findings helped lead to Bush's faith-based agenda." DiIulio was also part of a panel at the National Press Club where the "Sacred Places" study was released. Other participants included William J. Bennett, the former Secretary of Education; Sen. Joseph Lieberman; and Rev. Eugene F. Rivers III, pastor of the Azusa Christian Community in Boston, Mass. and a key point-man in the Bush faith-based initiative.

   Pleas for government grants and other forms of aid seem to be coming from these cash-poor ministries which want to operate social programs, but simply cannot afford to costs of maintaining buildings to a safe standard. The director of Hispanic Clergy of Philadelphia, Rev. Luis Cortes, said that his group's 60 churches have a difficult time simply meeting city code requirements. He cited a Baptist church which opened a day-care facility which failed to obtain licensing when the city insisted that a sprinkler system estimated to cost $50,000 be installed.

   "This is about local codes that stop service," Cortes said. "If the government demands sprinklers, there has to be a way government can meet that. The outcome here was no service at all for the community."

   Pennsylvania and New Jersey both use preservation trust money to provide restoration for religious properties that are included on historic registries. Diane Cohen told the Inquirer that she would like to see banks, foundations and other sources expand that program by providing discounted "bridge loans" or outright grants. Everyone, though, is waiting to see if the government will get involved, Cohen added.

   Money for bricks-and-mortar aid to churches is a dangerous step said Ellen Johnson, President of American Atheists. "Already, the government wants to tax millions of Atheists and freethinkers in this country in order to subsidize faith-based social services. If that isn't enough, now Bush and DiIulio want us to pay the buildings these religion-affiliated outreaches operate in. Where does it end?"

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