USA - Faith-based Initiatives, Social Development in the Universal Periodic Review

 

 

THE TANDEM PROJECT

http://www.tandemproject.com.

 

UNITED NATIONS, HUMAN RIGHTS,

FREEDOM OF RELIGION OR BELIEF

 

Separation of Religion or Belief & State

 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA  

 

UNIVERSAL PERIODIC REVIEW

 

USA- Faith-based Initiatives & Social Development

 

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Issue: USA – Faith Based Initiatives & Social Development in the Universal Periodic Review

 

For: United Nations, Governments, Religions or Beliefs, Academia, NGOs, Media, Civil Society

                                                                                                                                                                             

Review: Despite a Decade of Controversy, the ‘Faith-Based Initiative’ Endures, Peter Steinfels, Beliefs, New York Times, National Section, Saturday: August 1, 2009.

 

This is an article on a report, Taking Stock, on the G.W. Bush administration funding of religious organizations to do social service work with tax payer dollars, and how the Obama administration is continuing it under the White House Council for Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

 

The full title of the 91 page report, Taking Stock: The Bush Faith-based Initiative and What Lies Ahead. It is issued by the Roundtable on Religion and Social Welfare Policy, a project of the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government, at State University of New York (SUNY). “It is required reading for anyone serious about this topic.

 

The Tandem Project is interested in the report as an issue, Faith-based Initiatives, in preparation for the United States of America Universal Periodic Review by the UN Human Rights Council in December, 2010.

 

The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a unique process which involves a review of the human rights records of all 192 UN Member States once every four years. UPR Introduction and News:

http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/UPR/Pages/UPRMain.aspx

 

THE TANDEM PROJECT FOLLOW-UP

 

The Tandem Project proposal: Universal Periodic Review & Freedom of Religion or Belief

 

Genuine dialogue on human rights and freedom of religion or belief calls for respectful discourse, discussion of taboos and clarity by persons of diverse beliefs. Inclusive dialogue includes people of theistic, non-theistic and atheistic beliefs, as well as the right not to profess any religion or belief. The warning signs are clear, unless there is genuine dialogue ranging from religious fundamentalism to secular dogmatism; conflicts in the future will probably be even more deadly.

 

General Comment 22, Article 18, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Human Rights Committee (CCPR/C/21/Rev.1/Add.4) is prerequisite to understanding international law on freedom of religion or belief. Available at:

 

http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/(Symbol)/9a30112c27d1167cc12563ed004d8f15?Opendocument

 

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August 1, 2009

Beliefs

Despite a Decade of Controversy, the ‘Faith-Based Initiative’ Endures

By PETER STEINFELS

Ten years ago this month, in a campaign speech in Indianapolis, George W. Bush promised to direct $8 billion in federal financing to “armies of compassion” that he believed could combat social ills in ways that government programs could not.

Along with tax cuts, the anti-terror fight and the invasion of Iraq, the “faith-based initiative” became a defining policy of the Bush administration. It opened a new front in the culture wars, reignited longstanding constitutional disputes about church and state, and stirred controversies about whether religion was being bent to political purposes.

Opponents of the administration made it a chief point of attack; defenders extolled it: President Bush devoted more than 50 speeches to its virtues, 7 in one 17-day stretch in July 2001 alone.

The controversy boomed at a symbolic level even though there was little clarity about what, exactly, the program involved or how it worked or, for that matter, what the very label “faith-based” covered.

No one has done more to fill this gap with accurate information and analysis than the Roundtable on Religion and Social Welfare Policy, a project of the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government at the State University of New York. Now the Roundtable has issued a final report, “Taking Stock: The Bush Faith-Based Initiative and What Lies Ahead,” 91 pages of required reading for anyone serious about the topic.

As the title signals, the idea of somehow enlisting the resources of religious groups in the shaping and delivery of government social programs lives on, despite all the controversy. Although some critics hoped to drive a stake through its heart, under President Obama the initiative has found a new life, and a slightly altered name. The White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives are dead! Long live the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships!

“Taking Stock” traces in excruciating detail the Bush administration’s failure to win a firm legislative footing in Congress for letting religious groups with the potential to carry out social programs contract with government agencies on the same terms as other groups while protecting their religious identity.

Although there was consensus on not using government money for proselytizing or holding explicitly religious services, the stumbling block was always whether religious groups could use religious criteria in hiring for taxpayer-supported positions.

Both sides saw the issue as one of discrimination. For Democratic critics, it was a question of using federal financing to discriminate against job seekers on religious grounds. For Republican defenders, it was a question of not discriminating against the right of religious groups, no less than secular organizations, to maintain their own standards and identity.

Despite the legislative stalemate, the Bush administration mounted an extraordinary array of executive orders, rule changes and organizational innovations to push its program. The White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives spawned satellite offices in all cabinet-level departments, plus several quasi-governmental agencies, to increase the opportunities for religious groups to win a role in providing a range of social services.

“Taking Stock” claims that the effort was remarkably successful in overcoming “the ‘culture of resistance’ that had existed in the federal government toward faith-based organizations’ participation in social service contracts.” The effort spilled over to 36 states, most with Democratic governors, and more than 100 cities that eventually created religion-based offices or liaisons to religious communities.

Beyond that change in culture, what did the Bush initiative accomplish? Because financing flowed through so many different programs, “Taking Stock” concludes, “The full extent of public funding for faith-based social services is largely unknown.” The report suggests that administration officials were highly imaginative in attributing expenditures to the initiative, and in any case those expenditures fell far below the sums promised by the president.

Sadly, there is also little resolution of a central question behind the whole effort: Are religious organizations really more effective in providing social services than government or secular agencies? Or, more precisely, when are they better, when not, and why?

“Taking Stock” points to a handful of case studies showing religious providers to have had better results than government or secular nonprofit providers. Given the report’s generally cautious, even skeptical tone, the examples are notable. But as the report emphasizes, those studies remain far from truly rigorous empirical research. The discussion remains mired in the kind of anecdotal evidence that warms the hearts of proponents but leaves plenty of room for dismissal by the doubters.

Finally, the question of politics. Not only critics but also former high-ranking leaders of the Bush initiative complained that mobilizing the energies of religious service providers was often subordinated to electoral strategies.

Now “Taking Stock” suggests that the Obama effort, besides punting the tough question of hiring over to the Justice Department, will use its machinery not just to help religious groups providing social services to qualify for government financing but also to get religious perspectives on policies for economic recovery, strengthening fatherhood and families, reducing abortions and improving interfaith relations.

During the Bush years, a chasm often seemed to separate the officials devoted to the aims of the religion-based initiative from political strategists in the White House. No such chasm exists in the Obama White House. The executive director of the current partnership office, Joshua DuBois, a Pentecostal minister, was an aide to Mr. Obama in the Senate, served as religious affairs director for his presidential campaign and appears to enjoy his confidence. Mr. DuBois’s staff is heavily weighted with campaign veterans.

Such political muscle could very well mean a much more effective channel for religious voices in administration policymaking. Or it could mean a familiar, though probably subtler, effort to woo religious leaders for electoral reasons. Or, of course, both. Needless to say, this is speculative territory that “Taking Stock” does not try to explore.

Despite a Decade of Controversy, the ‘Faith-Based Initiative’ Endures, Peter Steinfels, Beliefs, New York Times, National Section, Saturday: August 1, 2009.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/01/us/01beliefs.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper&pagewanted=print

 

Documents Attached:

 

USA - Faith-based Initiatives & Social Development in the Universal Periodic Review

UN based Questionnaire - The Ultimate Meaning of Life

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THE TANDEM PROJECT PROPOSALS

 

Proposals for constructive, long-term solutions to conflicts based on religion or belief:  

 

(1) Develop a model local-national-international integrated approach to human rights and freedom of religion or belief, appropriate to the cultures of each country, as follow-up to the Universal Periodic Review. 1. (2) Use International Human Rights Standards on Freedom of Religion or Belief as a rule of law for inclusive and genuine dialogue on core values within and among nations, all religions and other beliefs, and for protection against discrimination. (3) Use the standards on freedom of religion or belief in education curricula and places of worship, “teaching children, from the very beginning, that their own religion is one out of many and that it is a personal choice for everyone to adhere to the religion or belief by which he or she feels most inspired, or to adhere to no religion or belief at all.” 2.

 

1: USA Example: Universal Periodic Review & Freedom of Religion or Belief

 

2: Mr. Piet de Klerk, Ambassador At-Large of the Netherlands on Human Rights, 25 year Anniversary of 1981 UN Declaration on Freedom of Religion or Belief, Prague, Czech Republic.

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RECOMMENDATIONS

 

Disclaimer: Information on government and non-governmental websites is for public distribution unless copyrighted. Recommendations are opinions of The Tandem Project and are not endorsed by governments and non-governmental organizations.

 

The Tandem Project Follow-up examines one issue at a time as a measure of progress on human rights and freedom of religion or belief at international, national and local levels. 

 

National Prayer Breakfast:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Prayer_Breakfast

 

The National Prayer Breakfast is a yearly event held in Washington D.C., on the first Thursday of February each year. The founder of this event was a Norwegian immigrant, Abraham Vereide. The event – which is actually a week long series of meetings, luncheons, and dinners, has taken place since 1953. The National Prayer Breakfast and meetings is attended by some 3,500 guests including international invitees from over 100 countries. The Breakfast is hosted by members of the United States Congress and organized on their behalf by The Fellowship Foundation, which supports a broad international movement that seeks to create common ground across religious, political and social divisions around the message of Jesus without affiliation to any one religious institution. It is designed to be a forum for political, social and business leaders of the world to assemble together and build relationships which might not otherwise be possible.

 

  • Recommendation: The National Prayer Breakfast is a unique spiritual week-long event where 3,500 guests from over 100 countries attend. They are hosted by U.S. Congressional leaders and organized by a Christian Fellowship. Diplomats and other guests attending hold diverse religious and other beliefs. The February 2010 event might consider a forum on Faith-based Initiatives & Social Development in the Universal Periodic Review as a dialogue priority with diplomats and other guests at the breakfast who are not members of the Christian faith. Members of the U.S. Congress, U.S. State Department and White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships might sponsor the forum inviting a panel of speakers from other countries on how religions in other countries combine social development with promotion of international human rights standards on freedom of religion or belief. 

 

 

National Council of Churches USA; http://www.ncccusa.org/

 

The National Council of Churches USA is affiliated with the Commission on World Mission and Evangelism of the World Council of Churches (WCC). The National Councils of Churches USA is an umbrella organization of 23 national churches in the United States who are members of the WCC. The National Council of Churches USA represents a wide spectrum of Protestant, Anglican, Orthodox, Evangelical, historic African American and Peace churches. There is an Interfaith Relations Commission in the National Council of Churches USA.

 

  • Recommendation: The National Council of Churches USA has five commissions: Commission Communication, Education and Leadership Ministries Commission, Faith and Order Commission, Interfaith Relations Commission, and Justice and Advocacy Commission. “The NCC office that deals with public policy issues, based in Washington D.C., makes a strong witness to the ethical dimensions of public policy issues.” The NCC-USA might consider a project on Faith-based Initiatives & Social Development in the Universal Periodic Review, as a public policy issue program with the World Council of Churches. They might suggest this to the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships as a forum presentation at the National Prayer Breakfast in February 2010 in preparation for the USA-UPR in December 2010.   

 

Minnesota Council of Churches; http://www.mnchurches.org

 

The Minnesota Council of Churches is a community of communions who confess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. As a statewide ecumenical agency formed in 1948, it has brought together mainline Protestant denominations in Minnesota for over half a century. The Minnesota Council of Churches was founded on the principle of collaboration from the start. The mission of Unity and Relationships program of the Minnesota Council of Churches is to manifest the Unity of Christ in the world and to build bridges of understanding between Christians and those of other faiths. They live out this mission through several on-going programs including Muslim-Christian Dialogue, Twin Cities Interfaith Network and Links to Interfaith Organizations.

 

  • Recommendation: The Minnesota Council of Churches is an affiliate member of the National Council of Churches USA (NCC-USA) and the World Council of Churches (WCC). Rev. Peg Chemberlin, Executive Director of the Minnesota Council of Churches, is one of 24 religious and secular leaders named to an Advisory Council for the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Interfaith dialogue is one of the priorities of the White House Office on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships. The Minnesota Council of Churches might consider a local level pilot project on Faith-based Social Development & the Universal Periodic Review with the Muslim-American Society of Minnesota and the Twin City Interfaith Network. Rev. Chemberlin might suggest this as designated priority to the Advisory Council of the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships

 

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United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, at the Alliance of Civilizations Madrid Forum said; “never in our lifetime has there been a more desperate need for constructive and committed dialogue, among individuals, among communities, among cultures, among and between nations.”

 

Genuine dialogue on human rights and freedom of religion or belief calls for respectful discourse, discussion of taboos and clarity by persons of diverse beliefs. Inclusive dialogue includes people of theistic, non-theistic and atheistic beliefs, as well as the right not to profess any religion or belief. The warning signs are clear, unless there is genuine dialogue ranging from religious fundamentalism to secular dogmatism; conflicts in the future will probably be even more deadly.

 

In 1968 the UN deferred work on an International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Religious Intolerance because of its complexity and sensitivity. In forty years violence, suffering and discrimination based on religion or belief has dramatically increased. It is time for a UN Working Group to draft what they deferred in 1968, a comprehensive core international human rights treaty- a United Nations Convention on Freedom of Religion or Belief: United Nations History – Freedom of Religion or Belief

 

The challenge to religions or beliefs at all levels is awareness, understanding and acceptance of international human rights standards on freedom of religion or belief. Leaders, teachers and followers of all religions or beliefs, with governments, are keys to test the viability of inclusive and genuine dialogue in response to the UN Secretary General’s urgent call for constructive and committed dialogue.

 

The Tandem Project preferred title, Separation of Religion or Belief and State (SOROBAS), reflects the far-reaching scope of UN General Comment 22 on Article 18, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Human Rights Committee (CCPR/C/21/Rev.1/Add.4). General Comment 22 on Article 18 clarifies the relationship of human rights law to freedom of religion or belief as a guide for peaceful cooperation, respectful competition and resolution of conflicts. This is prerequisite to understanding international human rights treaty law, norms and standards on freedom of religion or belief. Click to open:

http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/(Symbol)/9a30112c27d1167cc12563ed004d8f15?Opendocument

 

Surely one of the best hopes for humankind is to embrace a culture in which religions and other beliefs accept one another, in which wars and violence are not tolerated in the name of an exclusive right to truth, in which children are raised to solve conflicts with mediation, compassion and understanding.

 

We welcome ideas on how this can be accomplished; info@tandemproject.com.

 

The Tandem Project is a non-governmental organization (NGO) founded in 1986 to build understanding, tolerance and respect for diversity, and to prevent discrimination in matters relating to freedom of religion or belief. The Tandem Project has sponsored multiple conferences, curricula, reference materials and programs on Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights – Everyone shall have the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion - and 1981 United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief.

 

The Tandem Project is a UN NGO in Special Consultative Status with the

Economic and Social Council of the United Nations