ASHINGTON -
Religious and civil rights leaders who battled each other over President
Bush's faith-based initiative in 2001 said yesterday they had reached
consensus on a number of ways government and the private sector could aid
religious charities without violating the US Constitution's separation of
church and state.
The 33-person group, with members ranging across the political spectrum
from the American Civil Liberties Union to Evangelicals for Social Action,
agreed that government agencies should not discriminate against religious
charities eligible for federal social-service contracts and called for new
individual and corporate tax incentives to spur charitable giving.
Former Senator Harris Wofford, a Pennsylvania Democrat who convened the
working group in June, said he had not expected that a consensus could be
reached by people whose opinions were so strong and often at odds. But the
tragedy of Sept. 11 made them determined to find common ground and
increase the capacity of religious groups to help the needy.
''I believe this is the moment when the country would really respond to
mobilizing the armies of compassion to end poverty, and these
recommendations are part of that,'' said Wofford, who headed the
Corporation for National and Community Services in the Clinton
administration.
The group's report and 29 recommendations, under the title ''Finding
Common Ground,'' gave a boost to White House prospects for passage of a
scaled-down version of its faith-based initiative in Congress this
year.
White House spokeswoman Anne Womack said the bill was a priority for
the president and predicted it would be introduced in the Senate within
weeks.
The working group did not find common ground on the two most
contentious pieces of Bush's original faith-based initiative: providing
direct aid to pervasively sectarian groups and allowing religious
charities that practice hiring discrimination to access federal funds.
Those elements were part of H.R. 7, the faith-based legislation passed
by the House in July and vehemently opposed by Americans United for
Separation of Church and State, People for the American Way, and the
Religious Action Centre for Reform Judaism. Those groups were represented
in the Common Ground talks.
''Sept. ll really clarified our perspective and helped us all do what
was essential,'' said Rabbi David Saperstein, who directs the action
center.
Senator Rick Santorum, a Pennsylvania Republican who defeated Wofford
in 1994 but asked him to convene the Common Ground working group, called
the report ''a positive step.'' He said that he and Senator Joseph
Lieberman, a Connecticut Democrat, would introduce legislation soon that
would mirror the group's recommendations and provide tax incentives for
charitable giving and technical support for charities seeking government
contracts.
Santorum said his Senate bill, like the Common Ground report, ''presses
no hot-button issues that cause a lot of heartburn.''
Mary Leonard can be reached by e-mail at mailto:%20mleonard@globe.com.
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