O.C. Evangelical Heeds Bush’s Call to Work on Faith-Based Agencies

President-elect George W. Bush has summoned leading Latino evangelical Jesse Miranda along with 19 national religious figures to Austin, Texas, for a meeting Wednesday on how to increase faith-based, government-funded social services.

“There are areas where [religion and government] don’t conflict but work great together,” Miranda said. “There are issues behind the pulpit, and there are issues on the street corner. At the street corner, that’s where we have a lot in common.”

Miranda, 63, is the founder of the National Alliance of Evangelical Ministries (known by its Spanish acronym, AMEN), a network of 10 million Latino Protestants from 27 denominations. He also is director of the Center for Urban Studies and Ethnic Leadership at Vanguard University, a Christian college in Costa Mesa.

He said a Bush aide called Monday to say the president-elect wanted to see him in two days for a three-hour meeting.

During the presidential campaign, both Bush and Vice President Al Gore endorsed the idea of increasing faith-based organizations’ role in delivering taxpayer-funded social services.

Miranda said it will be “exciting and unnerving” to meet with the president-elect, but it won’t be an altogether-new experience for him. He has given counsel to Presidents Clinton, Bush and Reagan on issues ranging from immigration to those matters affecting Latin America.

“As a citizen, you respond to their call,” Miranda said. “But you don’t want to be co-opted by their mission. It’s a good and positive experience to share Christian values.”

Officials for President-elect Bush could not be reached for comment on Wednesday’s meeting.

When the U.S. welfare system was overhauled in 1996, federal legislators included a “charitable choice” provision, which eased restrictions on faith-based groups providing social services.

County officials said partnerships between faith-based organizations and government are on the rise, though still not well-publicized.

In October, the county’s Proposition 10 Children and Families Commission gave $1.1 million in state tobacco-tax funds to a program run by the Salvation Army and Orange County Rescue Mission, and $728,000 to Catholic Charities of Orange County for family health and social services.

“It’s mostly pragmatic,” said Stephen Lazarus of the Center for Public Justice in Annapolis, Md., of the government’s new attitude toward faith-based groups. “They want to get a job done--helping people--and faith-based organizations work.”