Bush Adds Faith-Based Center for Coordination After Disasters

c. 2006 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ President Bush has called for a center on faith-based and community initiatives to be opened within the Department of Homeland Security to help government and religious groups better coordinate after hurricanes and other disasters. Bush’s Tuesday (March 7) executive order says the action was taken to “better meet […]

c. 2006 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ President Bush has called for a center on faith-based and community initiatives to be opened within the Department of Homeland Security to help government and religious groups better coordinate after hurricanes and other disasters.

Bush’s Tuesday (March 7) executive order says the action was taken to “better meet America’s social and community needs.”


A report issued in February by a homeland security staff person found that while faith-based and other nongovernmental organizations provided “essential support” to hurricane victims, they “were not adequately integrated into the response effort.” The 217-page report, titled “The Federal Response to Hurricane Katrina: Lessons Learned,” recommended that the Department of Homeland Security create an office to better connect nongovernmental organizations with federal, state and local responders during emergencies.

The president had ordered the review within weeks after the hurricane devastated the Gulf Coast region. His executive order calls for the office to be created within 45 days.

Jim Towey, director of the White House Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives, said the new office will improve relations between the public and religious participants in disaster relief.

“They’ve been treated like candy stripers when they’re really foot soldiers,” he said of the faith-based groups.

He anticipates that the office will mostly be staffed by individuals in the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is within the Department of Homeland Security.

The new office will be the 11th agency center Bush has created to emphasize faith-based and community organizations. Following through on a campaign theme, Bush initiated his focus on religious charities shortly after his 2001 inauguration and called for sweeping congressional action.

The legislation has stalled, but Bush has been able to carry out part of his agenda through executive orders that do not require the approval of Congress.


Leaders of religious organizations and observers of church-state relations have been vocal about the difficulties faced by some faith-based groups and the ways to address future cooperation.

The “Lessons Learned” report cited testimony from officials of the Salvation Army and Catholic Charities USA who had difficulty getting firsthand information from FEMA officials or gaining admittance to FEMA’s operations.

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, a former Louisiana legislator, had called for a FEMA office addressing faith-based matters in mid-February. On Wednesday, he applauded the move by Bush.

“The president’s order should improve the government’s response in future natural or man-made disasters,” said Perkins, whose conservative Christian organization is based in Washington. “The order will hopefully replace the prevailing mind-set in DHS that the wall separating church and state prevents government from working with churches and synagogues to help our citizens.”

But the Rev. C. Welton Gaddy, president of the liberal-leaning Interfaith Alliance in Washington, criticized plans for the new office.

“For the sake of both religion and government, let’s not use the wrath of Hurricane Katrina to crack the wall between church and state,” said Gaddy, whose Monroe, La., congregation has offered hurricane relief in the affected region.


“The last several months have revealed the incompetence of DHS and creating such a `faith-based’ office will compound the problem by unnecessarily entangling religion and government.”

MO/PH END BANKS

Editors: To obtain photos of faith-based relief efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, go to the RNS Web site at https://religionnews.com. On the lower right, click on “photos,” then search by subject (Katrina).

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