WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Most Americans support the idea of President Bush's plan to fund faith-based charities but have reservations about government involvement in religion, according to a poll released on Tuesday.
The poll by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press and the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, found 75 percent of 2,041 people surveyed supported the concept of faith-based funding while 21 percent opposed it.
However, most respondents were selective about who should receive the money and did not think non-Judeo-Christian religious groups, such as Muslims and Buddhists, or groups outside the mainstream, such as Scientologists, should get funds.
"It's a bucket of worms. Public opinion is all over the map in our survey," said Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press.
Bush has created a faith-based initiatives office in the White House with the aim of letting churches, synagogues and mosques spend billions of dollars in federal money to fund projects ranging from aid to pregnant teens to helping the homeless.
Bush, who has said his own religious rebirth has changed his life, has rejected criticism that his faith-based plan threatened the constitutional separation of church and state.
In a country where the Constitution demands that separation, 68 percent of respondents worried faith-based initiatives might lead to too much government involvement in religious groups. In addition, 6 in 10 were concerned religious groups would try to convert those they were trying to help.
Americans had an even bigger problem with government-funded religious groups that hired only those of the same faith, with 78 percent opposing the practice.
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The poll by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press and the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, found 75 percent of 2,041 people surveyed supported the concept of faith-based funding while 21 percent opposed it.
However, most respondents were selective about who should receive the money and did not think non-Judeo-Christian religious groups, such as Muslims and Buddhists, or groups outside the mainstream, such as Scientologists, should get funds.
"It's a bucket of worms. Public opinion is all over the map in our survey," said Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press.
Bush has created a faith-based initiatives office in the White House with the aim of letting churches, synagogues and mosques spend billions of dollars in federal money to fund projects ranging from aid to pregnant teens to helping the homeless.
Bush, who has said his own religious rebirth has changed his life, has rejected criticism that his faith-based plan threatened the constitutional separation of church and state.
In a country where the Constitution demands that separation, 68 percent of respondents worried faith-based initiatives might lead to too much government involvement in religious groups. In addition, 6 in 10 were concerned religious groups would try to convert those they were trying to help.
Americans had an even bigger problem with government-funded religious groups that hired only those of the same faith, with 78 percent opposing the practice.
Want to learn more? http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=politics&Repository=USPOLITIC_REP&RepositoryStoryID=%2Fnews%2FIDS%2FPolitics%2FPOLITICS-BUSH-RELIGION-DC_TXT.XML
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PsychoticIckyThing.Com