James Carroll: Church, state, and Katrina

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: "John F. McMullen" <observer () westnet com>
Date: September 15, 2005 4:11:11 PM EDT
To: johnmac's living room <johnmacsgroup () yahoogroups com>
Cc: Inwood Cafe <inwoodcafe () yahoogroups com>, Commonweal Mailing List  
<commonweal () yahoogroups com>, Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>
Subject: James Carroll: Church, state, and Katrina


From the Boston Globe -- http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ 
editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/09/12/church_state_and_katrina/

Church, state, and Katrina
By James Carroll

THE DISASTER on the Gulf Coast is the occasion for public prayer.  
President Bush invites the nation this week to place the victims of  
Katrina in the hands of an all-loving God, an impulse many of us  
share. In Boston and other cities, religious figures have been at the  
forefront of welcome expressions of concern. On the scene of the  
catastrophe itself, religious organizations have provided heroic  
relief, often in stark contrast to hesitant government agencies. The  
value -- and values -- of religion have been on full display during  
this crisis.

And yet, Katrina's aftermath opens a curtain on the new -- and  
troublesome -- place religion occupies in the culture of America.  
Continuing a train of thought I began last week, I find myself  
wondering if the abysmal performance of government agencies in  
responding to this crisis isn't related to the unprecedented emphasis  
the government itself has been putting on ''faith-based" groups as  
key providers of social services? There is nothing new, of course, in  
religious organizations as generous suppliers of various public  
needs. One thinks of the parochial school system or the Salvation  
Army. But politicians from Washington to the state capitols have  
exploited this tradition of religious generosity to justify the  
rollback of programs dating to the New Deal.

Why is the shift from government to religion troubling? Doesn't it  
square with the idea that common-good activities flourish from the  
grassroots up? And isn't religion essentially a matter of  
compassionate love, an ideal no one would claim for public  
institutions? Religion directly addresses the mystery of death and  
suffering: What better institution to meet the needs of the  
suffering? Aren't religiously motivated providers, for whom the  
cardinal virtues are professional qualifications, less prone to large  
and small corruptions? What's to choose between, say, Mother Teresa  
and a form-obsessed social worker? Wouldn't we all prefer to have our  
needs met by the communion of the saints?

Maybe not. My unease is partly rooted in a question about religion  
and partly in concern for something essential to civil society.  
Religion, too, is of the human condition, and religious people (as  
they will tell you) are as sinful as anybody. The good reputation of  
religion survives despite those sins. Government, meanwhile, is held  
in contempt, a dichotomy related to a divide of the mind embodied in  
the ''separation of church and state," which has virtue on one side,  
corruption on the other. The state is firmly located in ''secular"  
culture, lately denigrated as the ''culture of death."

An over-the-top critique of the nonreligious realm -- ''secularism"  
-- is a staple of religious rhetoric, but the main tenets of  
democracy itself (pluralism, human rights, rational inquiry) were  
vigorously opposed as ''modernism" by almost all religious  
organizations. The ''state," it turns out, is as holy as the ''church."

The church-state divide, undercutting norms of supervision and  
accountability, means religious groups, even while entrusted with  
public functions, can embody antipublic values. To take last week's  
most glaring example, Operation Blessing, one of the FEMA-recommended  
relief agencies, is affiliated with Pat Robertson, an advocate of  
assassination as a tool of foreign policy. Why were American citizens  
being encouraged by the United States government to support Pat  
Robertson's enterprise?

Even when faith-based groups claim to offer social services with no  
strings attached, one must ask if such detachment is possible. The  
missionary impulse is implicit in the good works of religion. Mother  
Teresa required nothing of those she helped, but she still hoped that  
the compassionate face of Christ shined through her eyes. To some of  
us, it surely did -- but that hope itself can become an imposition on  
those who are in need.

The problem is redoubled when religiously sponsored good works supply  
essential needs in place of government responses. Something essential  
to democracy is at stake here. The rights of citizens to basic  
relief, especially in times of crisis, are rooted not in charity, but  
in justice. Charity can be an affront to the dignity of citizenship.  
Citizens in a democracy, after all, are the owners of government;  
therefore government help is a form of self-help.

Finally, appeals to ''faith-based" substitutes for the supply of  
basic needs have disguised a hidden agenda. The destruction of public  
social services has been nothing less than an attack on people in  
need, as if their need itself is deserving of punishment. The war on  
poverty has become a war on the poor. That it is waged in the name of  
God, in alliance with those who claim to honor God, is blasphemy.

James Carroll's column appears regularly in the Globe.

Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company
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                          John F. McMullen
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