President Bush raised more than a few eyebrows and hair plugs when he announced the formation of a White House Office of Faith Based and Community Initiatives in 2001. Now, in the twilight days of the administration, the White House is blurring the line between church and state even further.

The Justice Department recently disclosed a legal opinion memo that supported awarding a $1.5 million federal grant to a Christian aid group that hires on the condition of religious faith, the Washington Post reported. The opinion was reached over a year ago by their Office of Legal Council (OLC), but has only recently made the finding public.

Justice provided their nod of approval for the $1.5 million grant to the non-profit World Vision for salaries of staff members running a program for "at-risk youth" and gang prevention efforts. But according to World Vision's website, the organization only hires candidates "who agree and accept its Statement of Faith and/or The Apostle's Creed."

Congressional bans exist to prevent allocating federal grants to groups that practice discriminatory hiring. But the OLC's memo informed the Justice Department's Office of Juvenile Justice, which doled out the grant, they could bypass these bans by way of the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

The 1993 Act aims to prevent laws from substantially burdening a person's free exercise of their religion. And in their opinion, OLC claimed that requiring World Vision to hire non-Christians as a condition of the grant would create a "substantial burden" on the group's ability to freely exercise their religion.

But their legal decision is suspect, according to some. Speaking to the New York Times, Ira C. Lupu, co-director of the Project on Law and Religious Institutions at George Washington University Law School, described the OLC's reasoning as "a very big stretch."  

Barry W. Lynn, Executive Director of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, also disagrees with the Justice Department's legalese and sees the entire administration as hell-bent on illegally rewarding faith-based organizations over others.

"The Bush administration has been trying to allow religious recipients of tax dollars to discriminate in hiring. No Congress intended that. The Constitution does not permit it. This memo is just one more example of this administration subverting Congressional and constitutional intent in pursuit of a forbidden goal: discrimination in hiring, Lynn told the New York Times."

Regardless, the Justice Department continues to defend its legal reasoning. [DOJ] "stands firmly behind the opinion, which is narrowly drawn and carefully reasoned," said Erik Ablin, a Justice Department spokesman to the Washington Post.

World Vision, whose overall endowment is estimated at about $250 million, maintains some big name supporters. The organization recently received a $6.4 million donation from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for an Angolan farming project. And even if their hiring is biased towards particular religious faiths, the organization claims its work is free from any such favoritism.

Richard E. Stearns, World Vision's President of U.S. Operations, vehemently defended the mission of the organization, saying that they do not discriminate in any way in the delivery of services to the children and families they serve.

Even if that is true, the issue to be addressed is the appropriateness of allocating federal dollars to a group that seems to be practicing discriminatory hiring.

Of course, the Bush administration has never shied away from a close relationship with the Evangelical community, and it has continuously reaped the political rewards (and fallout) over the past eight years. As the days tick down towards November 4th, and ultimately January 20th, it will be interesting to see where else political favoritism and federal support have intersected over the past several years.

Dawn Johnsen, former Acting Chief of the OLC, told the Washington Post that the Bush administration's broad view of executive power and its tendency to bypass Congress make it all the more important for the next President to begin reviewing legal opinions, like the Justice's decision about World Vision, right after the November election.

Johnsen, who performed such reviews as part of President Clinton's 1992 transition team, told the Post that she would "definitely put" this recent opinion on a list of interpretations the next President should analyze.

 
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