hile President Bush continues to criss-cross the country promoting his federal faith-based initiative, more concerns about the wisdom of putting religious groups on the public payroll have surfaced amidst two news developments.

   In one, the New York Times has unearthed evidence of how faith-based organizations funded with state grants in New Jersey and New York continue to blatantly promote religion. Government authorities seem oblivious to the problem, or unwilling to enforce any regulations that public money be used only for the secular component of any social outreach. This raises questions of whether it is even possible to segregate public funds from the sectarian mission that religious groups carry out; and it is cause for concern about President Bush's federal faith-based initiative which he vigorously promoted over the July 4th weekend with a high-profile visit to Philadelphia.

   We also cover a breaking story where five workers at a "Christian Academy" -- identified inaccurately in wire service reports as a "community center," not a religious school -- have been charged with forcing children to stand in a manure pit as punishment.

   ¶    While state funds support a number of social services administered by religious groups in New York and New Jersey, at least some of those programs use proselytizing, prayer and sectarian instruction as part of their outreach program. "Religion," says Times writer Iver Peterson, "is an integral part of how they operate."

    A spokeswoman at one Lutheran Home for Children declared, "We are all Christians here," and said "we want these children to understand that this is a religious program. We're not just doing a job, we're doing a ministry." This woman also distributes "children's Bibles" to youngsters under her care -- blue for the boys, pink Bibles for the girls. It is not mentioned if these, too, are paid for with government funds.

    A nun who manages a publicly financed shelter for homeless and abused moms said that "she will preach to the women if they'll listen." There are no prohibitions on this religious exploitation, though, of vulnerable women who are victims of spousal or boyfriend abuse and are obviously at a critical point in their lives.

   ¶    Andy Williams, identified as chief spokesman for the New Jersey Department of Human Services, said that he was "surprised" to find that contractual grant agreements with religious organizations are identical to those signed by secular providers, and that "No contract language specifically forbids proselytizing or evangelizing with the public dollar." A coordinator for Catholic Charities for the Diocese of Rockville Center on Long Island, Scott Stepp said he assumed the language was in the contracts, but then admitted: "The sense that I get from people here is that there aren't these clauses ... about religious practices. What we get are the same basic boilerplate contracts than any secular social service provider would get."

   Stepp did find one clause, however, in a contract subsidizing a church-sponsored home for mentally retarded adults. The paragraph said that residents should be permitted to worship as they please!

   Meanwhile, the president of Lutheran Social Ministries for New Jersey said that any prohibition against the use of using tax dollars to underwrite religious activities was simply a "gentleman's agreement." Rev. Roger L. Arnholt added that religion was the "framing" for his group's $14.5 million worth of public social work contracts.

   "If our word did not come out of an understanding of what it means to be a child of God, I think our board would say that we don't have any reason to exist."

   ¶    In New Jersey, the Department of Human Services is already paying out $113 million a year in contracts to religious groups to operate social services. That's 10% of the total welfare budget, similar to the percentage in Connecticut. The Times added that according to Bill Van Slyke, deputy commissioner for public affairs at the New York State Office for Children and Family Services, the agency "does not even distinguish between its religious and its secular social service contractors, making it all but impossible to separate either the dollar value or the number of contracts with church entities..."

   ¶    David C. Heins, director of the New Jersey Human Services Department's Division on Family Development cagily avoided the use of terms like "religion" and said that faith-based groups bring a "value structure" to the programs they operate. "We not only engage with the faith community because they provide a service, but because they also express a particular value in their outlook toward life and caring for people," Heins added.

   AANEWS has covered a number of stories concerning abuse -- particularly of children -- at religion-based institutions. Recently, we reported on developments at the Roloff compound outside of Corpus Christi, Texas, where police last spring raided the Anchor Home for Boys amidst allegations of child abuse, and similar outrageous examples of "Bible discipline" at an Atlanta, GA. church. A "supervisor" for that Texas institution was convicted of several charges, and among other sentencing requirements was told to finally obtain a GED certificate since he did not even possess a complete high school education. Even without the GED, though, this individual could head, or be hired by a religion-based social provider seeking government funds under President Bush's faith-based initiative scheme.

   Like the revelations in the New York Times, there are powerful indications that religious groups ostensibly providing "services" to children are immune from much government oversight. These sects are often in full mental and physical control of the youngsters in their care. Should public funding aid these groups, or be used to expand their outreaches?

   Last Friday in Missouri, five workers at a center for troubled youngsters were charged with forcing the children in their care to stand in a pit filled with cow manure as punishment for minor infractions, including fighting, talking and being "disrespectful" to their overseers. The eleven youths ranged in age from 13 to 15.

   An Associated Press story said that the incident took place at Sharpe Farms and the Heartland Community Center. In fact, the alleged manure pit punishment involves Heartland Christian Academy in rural northeastern Missouri, an institution founded by insurance millionaire Charles Sharpe. Workers at a dairy farmed owned by Sharpe reported that they saw youngsters being forced to stand in manure, in some cases up to their chests, and another child smeared with the unpleasant residue from head to toe.

   Sharpe told reporters, "We don't abuse children." His Christian Academy works with about 200 youngsters from around the country. According to at least one news account, Sharpe admitted to the manure punishment, but said that it was stopped six weeks ago.

   "When I die, I'll either go to heaven or hell, and I won't go to heaven if I am abusing kids," he told the New York Times. Sharpe was described as "a politically influential backer of organized school prayer" and a friend of U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft.

   "I've shoveled manure my whole life, and I'm still having some shoveled on me," groused Sharpe, who lived a rags-to-riches story as founder of the Ozark National Life Insurance Company of Kansas City, MO.

   Workers at Sharpe's farm called a child abuse hotline in order to report the punishment. One said, "I've had beating my whole life, and I don't think that's right. But put them (children) in a pit? That's horrible."

   On Monday, Sharpe answered the charges by filing a lawsuit under the aegis of Heartland Academy Community Church and CNS International Ministries, two groups he heads. The lawsuit is directed against Lewis County and its Sheriff, Patricia McAfee, and Michael Waddle, chief juvenile officer for the Second Circuit Court which includes Lewis County. County officials described the Heartland facility as a "cult" and "little Waco," according to the lawsuit.

   Sharpe's complex of religious institutions is one of the largest employers in the area.

   Once again, this report of alleged allegations involving a faith-based "home" for youngsters raises serious questions about the wisdom of placing such groups on the public payroll.

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