My Washington Post online comment:
Thanks for this exposure of still another example of how our tax dollars are doled out to private interests. This letter is especially credible coming from a Christian minister who understands why breaching the wall between church and state is really an attack on both secular folk and believers alike. Moreover, this deal means a cut in services to the homeless. Urban structural adjustment is still alive and well in city hall, while more of our residents suffer from the recession. Our FY2009 [budget] is woefully inadequate to meet the needs of our working class residents, yet there is money to spare for this outrageous transfer. Will our Mayor give us a full accounting of other special favors, and how many translate into political support for the giver? Our City Council should hold hearings asap to bring sunshine on this issue.
David Schwartzman
At-Large Council Candidate
DC Statehood Green Party
www.davidschwartzman.com
8/10/2008 4:55:45 PM
TO:
Why Is the City Giving Millions to a Ministry?
Sunday, August 10, 2008; B08
Washington Post Outlook Section
There is no question that Central Union Mission performs an important ministry in Washington. Since 1884, it has been sharing Christian love with some of Washington's most needy people. For this, it is to be commended.
The question is whether the D.C. government should be funding the mission's Christian work to the tune of $13 million in tax dollars. In a recent action, the D.C. Council authorized a land swap with Central Union Mission [Metro, July 18]. The city will get a piece of land on Georgia Avenue NW appraised at $2.7 million. In exchange, the city will give the Gales School (appraised at nearly $9 million) and $7 million in cash to the mission. Central Union Mission comes out about $13 million to the good; D.C. taxpayers $13 million to the bad. Taxpayers' contribution to the mission will only get larger as the value of the land increases.
Is the transfer of $13 million in taxpayer money to a religious organization a violation of the separation of church and state? Of course.
Unlike secular, city-run and even some faith-based shelters, the mission's programs have an explicit religious goal of converting the homeless to a deep faith in Jesus Christ. The group's Web site says, "Every night Washington area churches send volunteers to share the Word of God. Praise and worship, counseling and clinical care are provided whenever the mission doors are open. . . . For those who respond to the nightly invitation to receive the Lord as Savior, there is follow-up prayer and counseling."
Sharing the Word of God, worshiping, and inviting shelter residents to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ are all things that some Christian outreach programs have been doing for decades. But they have done so with private funds, not tax dollars.
The Gales School transaction means that the tax dollars of citizens of many different faiths or of no religious persuasion are being used not only for the purpose of providing shelter to the homeless but also for efforts to convert them to a particular brand of Christianity.
This is unacceptable.
The Gales School deal has an additional huge downside: We lose one large shelter for the homeless. Where we currently have two shelters (the Central Union Mission and Gales), in the future, we will have one. As a result, there will be a significant loss of downtown beds for the homeless. None of this is the fault of the mission. The fault lies with city officials trying to buy their way out of a controversy with the mission's prospective neighbors in Petworth.
The Gales School deal knocks one more brick out of the wall the separates religion and state in the nation's capital. It is bad for the state. It is even worse for religion. If religious groups want protection from the state, we shouldn't seek money from the state. We are talking out of both sides of our religious mouths.
The Gales School-Central Union Mission transaction should be reworked. If the mission can pay for the property without a taxpayer subsidy, so be it. If not, let's use the Gales School or the revenue from its sale to shelter the homeless.
-- John W. Wimberly Jr.
Washington
The writer is pastor at Western Presbyterian Church.
