Federal money made available through President Bush's faith-based initiative program comes with strings attached, according to Steve Crampton, a Christian attorney with the American Family Association Center for Law & Policy.
"If you've got homeless people [helping] feed other homeless folks, that's the kind of thing that faith-based initiative money can aid in," Crampton told Agape Press. "But as soon as you start using that same format and have an evangelistic prayer over your meal, that's the kind of thing the government says you can't do."
Despite the program's strong points, Crampton said it could hamper the gospel from being preached. For example, government restrictions would not allow faith-based groups receiving federal dollars to evangelize -- a restriction many ministries simply cannot live with.
"The gospel is part in parcel with the sharing of material goods with the needy," he said. "And so my concern is, how do you maintain that kind of 'bright line' distinction when, for Christians, it is a matter of faith that touches all areas of life? You can't just separate them out in some sort of clean fashion."
Crampton believes many ministries simply will not go after available federal dollars with such restrictions in place. An Iowa rescue mission recently was threatened with losing $100,000 in federal money because its governing board was not "secular" enough.
