'Faith-Based' Funding Measure Pits Peach State's Governor Against Naysayers
by Jim Brown
February 22, 2006
(AgapePress) - - The governor of Georgia is once again urging passage of an amendment that would allow faith-based service providers to receive state funding. The Faith and Family Services Amendment seeks to "prevent discrimination in the public funding of social services by allowing religious or sectarian organizations to receive public aid." The amendment would bar the state, for example, from discriminating against church-affiliated relief agencies and social care providers for abused and neglected children. But Georgia's constitution currently prohibits such funding, and the bill stalled in the State Senate last year.
Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue, who is renewing his fight in support of the amendment, says a small group in the Senate opposing the measure is proving to be what he calls "The No Party."
"It takes some of their members, about four of their members, to pass a constitutional amendment, as it should be. That should be a higher threshold," the governor says. "But they're making partisan issues out of it -- and they haven't got a plan for what to do positively."
The Faith and Family Services Amendment was the only piece of the governor's legislative package from 2005 that did not win approval from the legislature. But the "No Party" members, Perdue says, are "taking great delight in blocking some of these issues that I want to accomplish and give the people an opportunity to vote on."
The governor argues that many of the best social service providers today are faith-based institutions. He cites recent history to support his case.
"If it had not been for the faith-based institutions in this country, we would not have made the progress that we made in [Hurricane Katrina relief and recovery efforts]," Purdue says. "We know that government at many levels disappointed us [in those efforts], and it was the faith-based groups -- the Salvation Army and the denominational relief agencies -- that really came and put the people on the ground, making a difference in the lives of those people."
Governor Perdue says people of faith should not be excluded from partnering with the state of Georgia "simply because they are called for a mission to help people."
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
