Bush Extols Faith Alliance

President Bush delivered a spirited defense Tuesday of his proposal to give government contracts to religious-based organizations that provide social services.

Calling himself “four-hammer George” for his occasional prowess at pounding home a nail with only four strokes, Bush was part of a team that helped build a house here under the Habitat for Humanity program, which is dedicated to housing low-income people.

In a seven-minute speech suffused with religious references, the president offered one of his most succinct, but emotional, arguments for teaming government with religion to help the poor.

“If this nation expects to fulfill its promise, we ought to welcome faith-based and community-based programs all throughout America,” Bush said.

Bush has made his proposal to relax restrictions on the connection between government and religious groups a centerpiece of his domestic policy agenda. But progress in Congress has been halting.

The House is considering legislation to implement the initiative, but the Senate is moving at a much slower pace. Even Senate proponents have delayed the introduction of one bill that would be key to the Bush program.

Critics have raised questions about whether the program will let government avoid its responsibility to address social problems.

And they have asked if it is proper--and legal, under the Constitution--to send government money to programs built on religious foundations, possibly crossing the boundary between church and state.

“Oh, there are some in our society who are skeptical about funding faith,” Bush said. “I hear it all the time in the halls of Congress--we can’t fund faith-based organizations.”

If that is so, he asked, what about the government’s support for Habitat for Humanity?

“Should we eliminate college scholarships where a child can go to a faith-based university? Should we say Medicaid or Medicare recipients can’t take their federal money to a religious hospital?” he asked.

But among those given at least slight pause by the president’s policy initiative is Millard Fuller, the president of Habitat for Humanity International.

Fuller labored with Bush and introduced him to a small crowd after their work, telling the president that “to come out here is to honor this ministry.”

But later he said the president’s program raises the risk of too heavy an involvement by government in the work of such faith-based groups, bringing with it either restrictions on religion or, alternatively, a requirement by the charity group that recipients subscribe to their religious views.

Fuller said the building projects open with a prayer--Bush took part in one Tuesday--and may close with a dedication ceremony built around religious beliefs. But, he said, as the president shook hands nearby, participants in the volunteer building work, and the families purchasing the homes, do not have to take part in the religious ceremonies.

The program, marking its 25th year, says it has built homes for more than 100,000 families in 76 countries.

The project Bush visited involves construction by volunteers of one-story, single-family homes on a nine-acre subdivision next to Interstate 4.

In jeans and a dark blue knit shirt--and with eight photographers and a television crew recording his work--the president got down on his knees and pounded nails into 2-by-4s that became the frame of a wall. In the heat and humidity of the sunny morning, his shirt, bearing the Habitat for Humanity logo, was quickly drenched in perspiration.

Later, he complained good-naturedly, “I can barely lift my arm.”

The house is being built for--and with the help of--Johana Rodriguez, who now lives in two rooms with her two children, a 12-year-old brother and her mother, ailing from a stroke. She will pay $45,000 for the house, in monthly payments of $300.

Taking a page from the biblical Book of Leviticus, Habitat for Humanity arranges for interest-free loans, said spokesman Michael Crook, citing the prohibition on charging interest to the poor.

For Bush, such programs represent what he calls the “armies of compassion.” He saluted Fuller as the general, and said, “Cpl. Bush reported for duty today.”

The work of government, the president said, is not to help people figure out what they can do to love their neighbors.

“That doesn’t happen because of government,” he said. “And that’s why it is so important for our nation to recognize the promise and power of faith in America.

“And that’s why our government should not fear working side by side with faith-based organizations,” he said. “Quite the opposite. We ought to fund faith-based organizations so that they can do their duty [with] love and compassion.”

Habitat for Humanity receives about $10 million a year from the government, Fuller said. It comes from a program known as the Self-Help Homeownership Opportunity Program in the budget of the Housing and Urban Development Department. Bush is seeking to increase the program’s funds from $22 million to $66 million.

The funding amounts to about $10,000 of government money in each house. Overall, he said, Habitat for Humanity International and its affiliates operate with a $500-million budget.

The organization received a major boost in its early years when President Carter, just out of office, worked on its building projects--a mission he takes part in annually.

This week’s visit was the third time the president has traveled to Florida since his inauguration.

In Coral Gables, a Miami suburb, Bush attended a closed-door meeting Monday with 78 Cuban and other Latino leaders. Cuban American economist Antonio Villamil said Bush mentioned “the need to free Cuba” from the grip of Fidel Castro but said the president’s remarks during the 45-minute session ranged from inter-American economic ties to the need to promote democracy throughout the hemisphere.

The broader approach would be in tune with the state’s changing demographics. According to the 2000 census, only 31% of Florida’s fast-growing Latino population is of Cuban origin, with increasing numbers coming from Mexico, Colombia, Puerto Rico and elsewhere.

For Dario Moreno, political science professor at Florida International University, the two-day trip, which concluded Tuesday, was confirmation of Florida’s place as keystone of the Bush White House’s electoral strategy.

“Florida, which used to be a political backwater, is now in the same league as California, New York and Texas as a place that is courted by politicians,” Moreno said.

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Times staff writers John-Thor Dahlburg and Nick Anderson contributed to this story.