Date: Tue, 15 Jan 2002 13:59:39 -0700
From: tomrvincent@yahoo.com ("Tom Vincent")
Subject: [AZHumanists] Fw: NEW REPORT FINDS COMMON GROUND ON COMMUNITY HELP FOR THOSE IN NEED
To: AZHumanists@yahoogroups.com
Reply-To: AZHumanists@yahoogroups.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "AUactivist" <AUactivist@au.org>
To: <auactivist@au.org>
Sent: Tuesday, January 15, 2002 1:27 PM
Subject: NEW REPORT FINDS COMMON GROUND ON COMMUNITY HELP FOR THOSE IN NEED
> For Immediate Release
> January 15, 2002
>
> Americans United for Separation of Church and State
> Contact: Joseph Conn, Rob Boston or Steve Benen
> 202-466-2334 telephone
> 202-466-2587 fax
> http://www.au.org
>
> NEW REPORT FINDS COMMON GROUND ON COMMUNITY HELP FOR THOSE IN NEED
>
> Document Outlines Ways To Provide Assistance Without Violating The
> Constitution, Says AU's Lynn
>
> Americans United for Separation of Church and State announced today that
it
> supports a consensus report designed to outline appropriate ways to
provide
> assistance to those in need through faith-based and other community
> organizations.
>
> The report, "Finding Common Ground," gives 29 recommendations for meeting
> human needs. The 54-page document is the result of a months-long
discussion
> by more than 30 representatives of groups that have been involved in the
> debate over funding "faith-based" social services.
>
> "I am pleased at the number of actions we agreed can be taken in this area
> without raising constitutional issues," said Barry W. Lynn, executive
> director of Americans United. "I hope this is the direction Congress and
the
> president take to move beyond the divisiveness of the debate in the House
> last summer."
>
> (In July, a deeply divided House approved H.R. 7, a package of measures
> designed to subsidize "faith-based" social services. The bill was
> controversial because it granted government support to religion, allowed
> publicly funded employment discrimination and paved the way for
> voucherization of social services.)
>
> Lynn, an attorney and United Church of Christ minister, was an active
> participant in the Working Group on Human Needs and Faith-Based Community
> Initiatives, the organization that sponsored the effort to find common
> ground. The Working Group's members ranged from representatives of the
> American Civil Liberties Union, the American Jewish Committee and People
for
> the American Way to the Southern Baptist Convention, the Becket Fund for
> Religious Liberty and Evangelicals for Social Action.
>
> The report says efforts to help the needy "can and must be carried out in
> ways that are effective and that strengthen our democracy while upholding
> our commitment to religious liberty as guaranteed by the First Amendment
to
> the U.S. Constitution."
>
> Lynn said that although Americans United remains adamantly opposed to
> government funding of religion, he was pleased to see the report outline
> other types of approaches that help people in need.
>
> Among the recommendations are a major increase in private giving to
> charities, changes in the tax code to encourage individual and corporate
> donations and streamlining the federal process to encourage formation of
> charities.
>
> In addition to recommendations for action, the report also includes
analysis
> and clarification of some of the issues surrounding the "faith-based
> initiative."
>
> Americans United is a religious liberty watchdog group based in
Washington,
> D.C. Founded in 1947, the organization educates Americans about the
> importance of church-state separation in safeguarding religious freedom.
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