Saturday, January 11, 2003

A story published today by the Providence Journal reports that the longstanding contention of social conservatives that marriage is not only good for the soul but can lift people out of poverty has provided new fuel to the national debate over government support for faith-based initiatives.

Less than a month after President Bush issued an executive order instructing federal agencies not to discriminate against faith-based groups that apply for federal grants, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services last week awarded $550,000 in grants to agencies and groups that aim to promote marriage among cohabitating couples and low-income couples whose marriages are falling apart.

One rationale for the grants is that children suffer economically and socially from not having two parents living at home -- close to half the children living in single-parent homes are in poverty, compared to 8 percent of children with two married parents.

Yet the idea of using federal money to promote marriage has drawn criticism both from the Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, which thinks the grants open the door to mixing sectarian teaching with marriage counseling, and some anti-poverty activists, who say children in poverty are better served by helping their parents get good paying jobs.

The Marriage Coalition, in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, is one of the faith-based groups named as a grant recipient. With a board of directors that includes several Christian ministers, a rabbi, a Hare Krishna and several Muslims, the group is said to be united in its belief that marriage is an integral part of God's design.

Jean Fell, a secretary for the Coalition, says the group plans to use the $199,994 it will receive to conduct classes for 72 unwed, low-income minority couples who have a child under six months old.

The Coalition believes that most cohabitating couples have an interest in marrying when their child is born but soon get discouraged by the strains of daily living. The Coalition says that by showing couples how they can nurture their relationship through listening and communication, they will see that they can have a marriage that works.

Fell says: "It's all about giving them hope."

Tom Whitten, executive director of the John Hope Settlement House, says he doesn't think President Bush is serious about fighting poverty, and believes the support for faith-based initiatives to promote marriage is a political ploy.

"Anything that strengthens families needs to be encouraged. But I get strongly suspicious when I see the president pushing this. I don't think he has demonstrated at all that he is gung-ho with families."

Whitten says providing money to faith-based groups means that money will be going to some groups that will try to discriminate, on religious grounds, as to who they hire. He also thinks it's wrong to say that children in single-parent homes are more likely to have problems.

Another activist, Henry Shelton, who directs the George Wiley Center and works with the Campaign to Eliminate Childhood Poverty, said he has no strong objection to using federal money to promote marriage, but doesn't think it's the way to fight poverty.

"It's the wrong emphasis. The way to help families stay together and to lift them out of poverty is getting them a good education and decent jobs," he declares.