resident George W. Bush yesterday continued his effort to build support for a greater role by faith-based groups in government funded social programs during a talk at the annual National Prayer Breakfast. It was the fifth consecutive day that Mr. Bush spent meeting with religious and political leaders in order to promote his controversial White House Office of Faith-based and Community initiatives. Bush began the week with an appearance at a Washington, DC church, followed by a White House ceremony where he signed two Executive Orders creating the new federal agency, and ordering key government departments to establish compliance offices to reach out to faith-based groups.

   Yesterday's Prayer Breakfast was attended by nearly 4,000 clerics and representatives from religious and advocacy groups, along with many lawmakers. Organizers refused to release a full list of attendees, but the White House Press Office later provided the names of several international leaders at the event. They included President Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo; President Boris Trajkovsi of Macedonia; President Paul Kagame of Rwanda; and Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda of the Slovak Republic. Foreign ministerial officials from Montenegro, Bahamas, Albania and Romania also attended, along with former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

   In his address to the breakfast, Mr. Bush continued sending contradictory signals regarding the separation of church and state, and his desire to give religious groups greater access to the public treasury through funding faith-based social services. "Our plan will not favor religious institutions over nonreligious institutions. As president, I'm interested in what is constitutional and I'm interested in what works." Bush then said that his administration would place the resources of the federal government "squarely on the side of America's armies of compassion." He drew a standing ovation when he declared, "The days of discriminating against religious institutions simply because they are religious must come to an end."

   The president laced his speech with references to personal redemption, and the power of religious faith which, he said, had changed his own life. "It has sustained me in moments of success and in moments of disappointment," declared Bush. "Without it, I'd be a different person. And without it, I doubt I'd be here today.

   Bush seemed aware of the tide of criticism which has been building over the past several days since he unveiled his proposal for a faith-based partnership between religious groups and the government.

   "We have set out to promote the work of community and faith-based charities," he said. "Government cannot be replaced by charities, but it can welcome them as partners instead of resenting them as rivals."

   He added that "Faith crosses every border and touches every heart in every nation."

   Vice President Dick Cheney also addressed the event.

   "Every great and meaningful achievement in this life requires the active involvement of the One who placed us here for a reason, who knows our names and cares about what we do, and is ever deserving of our trust and devotion," he told the group.

   Washington Post writer Amy Goldstein noted that Bush's remarks during this year's National Prayer Breakfast "were an uncommonly blunt advocacy of faith, diverging from the tone that Bill Clinton usually set." Bush avoided mentioning foreign policy hot-spots which were often rooted in religious conflict, such as Northern Ireland or the Middle east. The emphasis on the primacy of religious belief drew praise from a number of quarters and pundits, and from Rev. Rob Schenck of the National Clergy County, a far-right group which had excoriated Mr. Clinton for his personal behavior and the Monica Lewinsky flap, and had advocated his impeachment.

   Schenck told reporters before the breakfast, "It should be quite different with President Bush, who appears in every way to be in greater harmony with what the breakfast stands for."

    In related developments, a number of Democrats led by Sen. Joseph Lieberman are rushing to embrace Bush's call for more involvement by religious groups in the operation of faith-based social programs.

   ¶    Earlier in the week, Republican Rep. J.C. Watts Jr. (OK), a regular fixture at Pat Robertson's annual "Road to Victory" meetings, told the House Republican Conference, "We accept the challenge to discuss what faith-based programs can do in America." Watts is the architect of several legislative items including the American Community Renewal Act which mirror Bush's faith-based partnership proposals.

   Watts' enthusiastic support for Bush's White Office and similar legislation received the endorsement of Mr. Lieberman, who described the plans as "a commendable call to conscience."

   "President Bush has made clear he wants the federal government to do more to tap into this charitable and spiritual wellspring and rally what he calls 'the armies of compassion' to fulfill the American promise."

   ¶    The Bush faith-based plan is attracting considerable support throughout the network of black churches across the country. While black ministers and their congregations voted in large numbers for former Vice President Al Gore, some religious right groups such as the Promise Keepers have courted this block, fusing a conservative theological and political message with rhetoric of "racial reconciliation." Mr. Bush has reached out to this potential constituency, including Dallas "megachurch" evangelist T.D. Jakes, who is also a Promise Keeper rally speaker.

   The attitude of many black church leaders was expressed by Bishop Charles E. Blake, pastor of the West Angeles Church of God in Chris in Los Angeles. Blake considers efforts to paint Bush as "illegitimate" in light of the November election dispute to be foolhardy.

   "It would be a horrible mistake for black people to say, as some have said, 'We don't recognize him...' If you refuse to deal with him (Bush), the resources at his disposal will be given to others."

   Rev. Eugene Rivers of the mostly-black Pentecostal Azusa Christian Community church in Boston adds, "Right now, it's really coming down to the black preachers versus the black Democrats."

   Many of these church leaders are turning away from what they describe as the "declining civil rights industry" which emphasized protest and political power, in favor of operating community services. Bush's new faith-based initiative, they say, promises to infuse their churches and neighborhoods with new money, projects and influence.

   Others, like Rev. Floyd Flake who is a former congressman and now heads a New York City "megachurch," may not agree entirely with Blake's approach but believes that the future lay in an accommodation between religious groups and government.

   Bush offers not only funds and renewed vigor for inner-city religious groups, but he often speaks the same conservative social language. Black churches have wrestled with issues such as abortion and gay rights; and many express some of the same conservative views that are voiced on the religious right by groups like the Family Research Council. Many also agree with Bush and the Republican line that a "rivalry" which has supposedly existed between church and state in recent years needs to be addressed, and that, as the president said yesterday at the National Prayer Breakfast, "The days of discriminating against religious institutions simply because they are religious must come to an end."

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