On November 26, the director of the White House Office of Faith Based and Community Initiatives (Jim Towey) participated in an online forum called "Ask the White House". I was surprised to learn that the following Q & A was included:

Colby, from Centralia MO writes:
Do you feel that Pagan faith based groups should be given the same considerations as any other group that seeks aid?
Jim Towey:
I haven't run into a pagan faith-based group yet, much less a pagan group that cares for the poor! Once you make it clear to any applicant that public money must go to public purposes and can't be used to promote ideology, the fringe groups lose interest. Helping the poor is tough work and only those with loving hearts seem drawn to it.

No, I wasn't surprised by the answer; I was surprised that the question made it through whatever screening process they had, and that it was answered and posted on the White House web site. I would expect such a question would be ignored. I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised, considering it was a well written piece of propaganda that didn't commit to anything-- notice that he didn't even definitively state that Pagan Faith-Based groups would not be eligible for such funds. Instead he skirted the issue and made several non-flattering implications about Pagans, leaving no doubt that the answer was "no" but not saying anything that can be specifically challenged.

Ask yourself-- how does this make you feel? Are you insulted? Well, that's understandable. Offended? Again, we were slurred. But were we actually discriminated against?

No.

We're not eligible for that money because, in short, we haven't applied for it. If your first thought was "We're entitled to that money," you need to step back and listen to yourself. Why would we be entitled? Because we're Pagan? Not a very convincing argument. Because Christian organizations are eligible? No, not good enough-- Christian organizations applying for this money have to meet certain standards, too. Right now, to my knowledge, we don't have anything that meets those standards.

I should clarify that the Pagan Community does perform charitable work. Every year on Pagan Pride Day, groups all over the country collect food and money for charity. In the last three years, over $51,000 has been raised and distributed to local, regional, and national charities, and over 74,000 pounds of food has been donated. These donations were not used to "promote ideology," and in some cases were turned over to respected Christian organizations. After 9/11, I saw all sorts of our organizations put the call out for blood donations.

But these are not the kind of things that can be used as a legitimate claim for public funds. Three years ago, I wrote a column proposing that we should try and get some of this money. Specifically, I suggested we should come at them with a truly woman-friendly Family Planning Center (as opposed to a center that plans your family for you). This was more of a rhetorical argument than anything-- I don't know of any Pagan organization that has the resources to put something like that together, and realistically, they're not going to give the money to a group that is not yet providing the services they want subsidized.

It could be argued that this alone tips the balance in favor of Christian organizations, but we have to face the facts-- Christian Organizations do a lot of good. Yes, there are a lot of Christian organizations that use their outreach programs to push their religion on people who need help, but there are still solid Christian organizations out there that are in it for the Work-- providing food, shelter, clothing, education, and even medical assistance to those in need. The Catholic Church, for all the attacks it endures from Pagans and Protestants alike, has a rich history of helping those who need help, regardless of their faith. My wife tells me of a Catholic Family Planning Center that actually told mothers considering abortions that if they would consent to having the baby, they would provide complete shelter and medical care throughout the pregnancy and, if desired, assist with the adoption. I may not agree with their position on abortion, but, by God (and yes, in this case, I mean Jehovah), they put their money where their mouth is.

What do we have to compare to this?

To my knowledge, we have nothing in place. We're just not there yet, although we're moving in the right direction. There are a lot of opportunities open to us to serve the public while demonstrating (but not pushing) our values, and we've got people laying the groundwork now. To cite just one example, the Delaware Valley Pagan Network has created an excellent list of potential projects on their web site at http://dvpn.org/Outreach.html. We've got the spirit, we've got the dreams, but we just don't have the resources in place... yet.

Let's face it; one of the reasons we get huffy about the Faith-Based Initiative is because we don't trust Bush to implement it properly. The fact that the director of the project would make such unflattering statements and implications about us serves only to reinforce our suspicions that this project was created to channel government money into the pockets of the Religious Right.

A more civilized answer would have been "If a Pagan faith-based group met the criteria, they would be eligible." He could even have added "I am not aware of any such groups in existence, though." Instead, he chose to imply that we're grubbing for money to promote our own ideology. This would be a legitimate complaint if it were true, and in fact represents our primary concern about the program.

Mr. Towey is wide open for criticism on this point, but we should be careful how we go about it. If we say we're entitled to the money when we can't meet the requirements that must be in place, we only serve to prove him right.

© 2003 by Cather "Catalyst" Steincamp