Bush Delays Funding of Religious Charities

The Bush administration will delay action on parts of its plan to channel more government money to religious charities until it can quiet some of the surprisingly vehement opposition to the program.

“We’re postponing,” said Don Eberly, the deputy director of the new White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. “We’re not ready to send our own bill up.” Eberly acknowledged that the proposal “may need to be corrected in some areas,” particularly the interplay between religious programs and government funding.

The White House expected church-state separation groups to object. But it didn’t expect a chorus of doubts from religious conservatives such as Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell and even Marvin Olasky, one of the program’s early architects; they worry that churches would be corrupted by government regulations or that objectionable sects would be rewarded.