By J.A. Dunn

LAKELAND — Florida Annual Conference ministries are adopting a wait and see attitude toward President George W. Bush’s faith-based initiative bill, which passed the Senate April 9.

The bill, which has little in common with Bush’s faith-based initiative proposal, advocates charitable giving by granting non-itemizing taxpayers a tax deduction of up to $250 for their gifts. The Senate passed the bill in a 95-5 vote.

Incentives include a provision that allows people to roll over their retirement accounts directly to a charity without paying tax penalties.

Brent Hursey-McLaughlin, executive director of Miami Urban Ministries, said the bill is a positive move, but doubted it would have a major impact on the amount of individual gifts the ministry receives each year.

Miami Urban Ministries is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. It provides a variety of activities through local churches, such as homework help, more than 1,000 Thanksgiving meals to homebound individuals, community service projects and other activities. The group is both a conference outreach ministry and Advance Special.

"It’s another way for people to give," said Hursey-McLaughlin, who operates the ministry on an annual budget of $220,000. "I think it will broaden support [for faith-based agencies] over time. Our support base is not huge. I would estimate that we get about $12,000 a year from individual contributions, so it’s not going to be a boon for the organization."

Tampa United Methodist Centers (TUMC) is on the opposite side of the spectrum.

Giovanna Welch, strategic planner and grant writing consultant for TUMC, estimates a whopping $400,000 of TUMC’s $10.5 million annual budget comes from individual giving. She said individual funding has filled a tremendous gap, while other giving has dried up considerably since Sept. 11, 2001.

An Advance Special of the conference and the general church, TUMC has operated social service and housing programs through federal dollars for several years, Welch said. She said these programs have filled a gap for many poor and working poor families who would have otherwise fallen through the cracks of traditional social welfare programs.

Hursey-McLaughlin hopes the bill will encourage people to make faith-based donations. He said Miami Urban Ministries works closely with about 25 churches in the Miami District providing youth ministry opportunities, low-income entrepreneurship, music lessons to low-income children, after-school care and other services to strengthen individual congregations.

Last month the bill was slated to go to the House of Representatives, where bipartisan passage was expected. Objections based on church-state separation issues had halted the faith-based initiative in the Senate last year, and the bill was stalled until sponsors dropped provisions that critics said allowed for federally supported proselytizing, according to a recent article by the United Methodist News Service (UMNS).

Bill Fackler, former chairman of the Conference Council on Ministries’ Church & Society Ministry Team, was not optimistic the bill would clear the House.

"It was a meaningful bill," Fackler said. "The House Bill is totally different than the Senate."

Fackler said his only concern would be a clear definitive line between church and state.

"We [the United Methodist Church] believe organizations of faith should be able to access government funds for providing services, but with a clear barrier to prevent proselytizing," he said.

Welch said a wise legislature would see the value of promoting the faith-based initiative.

"Faith-based programs can provide a safety net that stops families from falling into the depths of poverty, crime, abuse, homelessness and drugs—a place from which most never return—no matter how much money the government pumps into prisons, foster care and drug treatment," she said.

Originally, President Bush’s faith-based initiative was a way to encourage faith-based and community organizations to participate in providing social services through federal grants, according to UMNS.

The United Methodist Board of Church and Society and other agencies gave the concept a mixed review because of concerns about maintaining constitutional separation of church and state. In June 2001, the board joined with two other United Methodist agencies, the Board of Global Ministries and the General Council on Finance and Administration, to publish a guide to faith-based initiatives because the agencies were receiving many questions, according to UMNS.

The bill also includes almost $1.4 billion being added in the next two years to the block grant that helps states fund social service programs and $150 million being allocated each year to assist small community and faith-based organizations in applying for federal funds, according to UMNS.

"There is strength in numbers," Welch said. "Every dollar of support given to organizations like TUMC has a voice that says, ‘I believe in this work, and if necessary, I can use my vote to prove it.’