Washington — Nearly two-thirds of the states haven't given churches and other religious organizations any money for welfare programs despite a federal law meant to open the government's checkbook, according to a 50-state Associated Press survey.
Congregations have shown little enthusiasm for "charitable choice" which President Bush hopes to expand to programs across the federal government and states have done little to promote it, according to interviews with state welfare officials, religious leaders and welfare experts.
Mission Missouri provides hot meals in Sikeston, Mo. The faith-based group also offers job skills training for area residents. Missouri is one of just five states to embrace "charitable choice" under a federal law to give churches and religious organizations money for welfare programs.
"Religious groups and government are naturally suspicious of one another," said Paul Ladd, spokesman for the Tennessee Department of Human Services, which has not awarded any contracts to religious groups under the 1996 law.
"It's sort of a matter of each side convincing the other we're not out to get you or bonk you over the head and make you do it our way or the highway," he said.
Bush's health and human services secretary, former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson, acknowledges the idea has been a tough sell. Only one religious program in Wisconsin has received government money to help aid people on welfare.
"We opened it up and we didn't have as many applications as we thought there would be," Thompson said. "We didn't pursue it any more. We made it available."
First adopted in 1996 as part of the national overhaul of welfare law, charitable choice was meant to open government programs to religious groups not traditionally eligible for funding. It does not require states to issue new contracts or set aside any money. It permits such groups to receive tax dollars without having to change their predominantly religious character.
For instance, the law allowed organizations to continue displaying religious symbols and to consider religion in hiring workers. Programs may include religious content, but they can't use government money to promote or require those they are helping to participate in religion.
Later, Congress extended the concept to federal drug treatment and community development programs. But charitable choice attracted little attention until this year, when Bush proposed a major expansion. He's met stiff opposition from a diverse group of religious and secular groups, and the proposal faces a tougher trip through Congress this time.
Backers hoped that charitable choice would create a groundswell of interest from religious groups that had never considered applying for such aid or had been shunned.
But nearly five years later, the AP survey found 31 states and the District of Columbia have not awarded any government welfare contracts to religious groups that would not have been eligible otherwise.
An additional 14 states report sporadic use of charitable choice a handful of contracts at most.
Just five states Arkansas, Indiana, Missouri, Ohio and Texas have embraced it, spending hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars.
"We recognized very early that churches held a very valuable piece of the puzzle," said Joel Potts, Ohio's welfare reform coordinator, who estimates his state has directed more than $10 million to religious contractors.
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