OxfordPress.com

Faith groups see dilemma in storm duty

Conference here to hash out issues

It's easy to find heartfelt testimonials to the effectiveness of faith-based relief operations on any stretch of the Hurricane Katrina disaster zone.

"If it hadn't been for the churches, I think people here would have starved to death and died of thirst," Carrie Babin said last month as her husband, Albert, salvaged a box of Christmas ornaments from the ruins of their retirement home in Waveland, Miss.

The heavy-duty truck next to you in a Slidell, La., traffic jam is as likely to bear the logo of the Christian Contractors of America as any government agency. In many cases, relief operations run by such faith-based groups were the first lifeline for survivors of the disaster, and they remain a big presence in still-struggling areas.

They range from large operations like the Salvation Army to small crews of volunteers from churches across the South. In storm-stricken communities as far as 40 miles inland, local churches continue to serve as impromptu relief centers.

Such groups have been perhaps the best advertisement for the Bush administration's drive to involve faith-based institutions in more public service activities — a policy it contends will allow better and less expensive delivery of taxpayer-funded initiatives. But many churches involved in the relief effort haven't qualified for federal assistance, and some experts also worry that government's reliance on them to provide services that might have formerly been the responsibility of federal agencies may leave the faith-based organizations with too big a burden.

These concerns will be part of the focus as the Roundtable on Religion and Social Welfare Policy, a project of the nonpartisan Rockefeller Institute of Government, holds its annual conference today in Atlanta.

The storm relief effort has shown that faith-based groups are capable of "an organizational flexibility and an individual compassion that is difficult to generate in a governmental organization," said John R. Harrald, director of the George Washington University Institute for Crisis, Disaster and Risk Management.

But Harrald worries that approval for the good works these organizations have done may prove to be a mixed blessing.

Harrald is concerned there will be an effort to force private relief groups into the National Incident Management System, the federal government's blueprint for handling disasters. That could shackle them in bureacracy and make it harder for them to be effective, he said.

Harrald also worries that faith-based groups will be left with a bigger share of the long-term recovery effort than they will be able to handle — a concern shared by Jacqueline Johnson, director of the Mississippi Faith-Based Coalition for Community Renewal, which was founded to help churches take advantage of federal grant money made available through the Bush administration's Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives.

"They can respond to immediate needs, but in terms of long-term recovery, churches won't be able to do that because they're going to run out of money," Johnson said.

Most of the local churches that have played such a vital role in the hurricane relief effort aren't going to be reimbursed by the government because they weren't previously registered with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Johnson said.

Johnson said her organization was working with churches so that during the next disaster, they would be in line for federal emergency dollars.

Today's conference will also examine Georgia's experience with faith-based initiatives.

Gov. Sonny Perdue's effort to put on the ballot a constitutional amendment that would make it easier for the state to contract with religious organizations for services failed in the Legislature earlier this year. Opponents charged the change could be a back-door way to institute private school vouchers.

"Georgia is continuing to have a high-profile, high-stakes debate about whether, and how, it should amend its constitution to better accommodate its partnerships with faith-based organizations," Richard P. Nathan, director of the Rockefeller Institute of Government, said in a release about the conference.

State Sen. Seth Harp (R-Columbus), one of the sponsors of the amendment bill, said he would confer with Perdue and Republican legislative leaders before the Legislature convened again next month to see how they wanted to proceed.

"I feel strongly enough about it that if a bill doesn't come forward, I'll offer one myself," said Harp, who will be one of the panelists at today's conference.