Report says Bush team made deal with Salvation Army

Special report: George Bush's America

Martin Kettle in Washington
Wednesday July 11, 2001
The Guardian

The Bush administration was accused yesterday of plotting to allow federally funded American religious organisations to discriminate against gay men and lesbians.

A spokesman for President George Bush denied a report in the Washington Post that the White House had made a "firm commitment" to allow the Salvation Army and other religious charities to discriminate against gays.

But it did not deny claims that it was discussing ways in which charities can continue to discriminate while they receive millions of dollars in federal aid under Mr Bush's "faith-based" social services plan.

Reports yesterday quoted Salvation Army documents and spokesmen as saying that the Bush White House intended to issue an executive regulation, which would not require congressional approval, to protect religious charities from city- and state-level laws which require publicly funded bodies to follow non-discriminatory employment policies.

In return, the Salvation Army, America's largest charity, would throw its weight behind the White House's controversial "faith-based" legislation, expected to be debated in the House of Representatives later this month.

However, Mr Bush's spokesman Ari Fleischer said yesterday that the administration had "absolutely not" made such a commitment.

The dispute once again highlights the immensely sensitive constitutional and cultural issues that riddle Mr Bush's ground-breaking attempt to divert huge sums of federal money to religious organisations.

Liberals oppose the legislation, the centrepiece of Mr Bush's "compassionate conservatism" agenda, mainly because it goes against the principle of the separation of church and state. They fear the funding will be used for doctrinal proselytising.

Critics said the revelation shows that the Bush White House is much more closely allied to conservative interest groups than it likes to let on.

Conservatives support the legislation because they want to strengthen the place of religion, especially fundamentalist Christianity, in all aspects of American life. They want tougher and more conservative moral precepts to play a bigger part in bringing offenders, addicts and welfare claimants off the streets and back into society.

Opposition to homosexuality and lesbianism is an article of faith for many conservative and religious groups alike.

There is no federal law that prevents religious groups from discriminating against gay people in their job-hiring policies, or in other employment practices.

At local and state levels, however, there is growing pressure to require publicly funded religious groups to adhere to laws and regulations which ban discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation.

The Salvation Army and other groups have been pressing Washington to find ways that the charities can be protected from these laws, while still obtaining federal funding.

"It is important that the Army's support for the White House's activities occur simultaneously with efforts to achieve the Army's objectives," the document quoted in the Washington Post claimed. "The White House has already said that they are committed to move on the the Army's objectives."

"There should never be government-funded discrimination in this country," Terri Schroeder, of the American Civil Liberties Union, said. "These moves would undermine that principle."

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