Faith-Based Chief Cites 'Culture War'
By Peter Wallsten
Times Staff Writer
June 2, 2004
WASHINGTON — The head of the White House's faith-based initiatives program said Tuesday that a "culture war" was dividing the Bush administration and its critics who challenge the constitutionality of mixing church and state.
"It's true that much attention is being placed on the war in Iraq, but there's also another war that's going on," said Jim Towey, director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, during a conference promoting the funding of religious groups engaged in social service activities. "It's a culture war that really gets to the heart of the questions about what is the role of faith in the public square."
Towey, who has worked for Democrats and Republicans and was a lawyer for Mother Teresa of Calcutta, warned that when faith was driven out of that public square, "you almost wind up creating a godless orthodoxy."
His remarks came shortly after President Bush delivered an emotional 40-minute address to the gathering of 2,000 religious leaders and social service workers in which he pledged to increase the money available to faith-based organizations.
You want to know the role of religion in the public square?
Well, in the American public square, it has no role. People inspired and shaped by religion have as much role as they want, but they have no more right to impose their way of life in the public square than atheists do.
