Faith Not Forced; Let Program Continue Usda Went Too Far ‘Separation’ Need Not Mean Hostility To Faith

When bureaucrats at the U.S. Department of Agriculture found out the Memphis Union Mission requires its guests to attend chapel after dinner, they gave the respected Tennessee homeless mission an ultimatum: Dump the church requirement or the federal food surplus program will dump you. The feds made good on the threat, and now M.U.M. has to find a third of its food budget somewhere else. What a mean-spirited, misguided interpretation of “the separation of church and state.” Now, in addition, a federal agency demands “the separation of food and faith.”

If the government follows through elsewhere, what might this mean for Spokane’s own Union Gospel Mission? Will it, too, be asked to yield up its chapel requirement … or be faced with having to slash its literacy and job training programs to spend more on food? You see, it also uses USDA surpluses, although only for breakfast and lunch, meals not linked to the service obligation.

It is interesting to note that both presidential candidates say they welcome faith-based organizations participating in government-funded anti-poverty programs. George Bush even goes so far as to declare he would “never ask an organization to compromise its core values and spiritual mission to get the help it needs.”

Rescue missions have always been about feeding the soul as well as the stomach. The men who frequent these shelters are well aware of that. The missions welcome destitute men of all faiths and lifestyles. They only require that, in return for food and shelter, the men sit through a religious service. They do not force professions of faith. They continue to feed, clothe, house, and educate those who come to them whether or not they accept the gospel message.

Too many people today forget that “the separation of church and state” was aimed at protecting the church from the encroachment of government regulation, not vice versa. Our Founding Fathers well knew the history of the Roman Empire, which confiscated the property of Christians and even threw them to the lions when their only crime was refusing to participate in a state religion that required emperor worship.

The USDA directive targeting the Memphis Union Mission goes too far in an over-zealous application of the separation of church and state. It is the nation’s homeless, hopeless and hungry who will suffer from this policy.