by Peter Steinfels
The New York Times

Ten
years ago this month, in a campaign speech in Indianapolis, George W.
Bush promised to direct $8 billion in federal financing to "armies of
compassion" that he believed could combat social ills in ways that
government programs could not.

Along with tax cuts, the antiterror fight and the invasion of Iraq,
the "faith-based initiative" became a defining policy of the Bush
administration. It opened a new front in the culture wars, reignited
longstanding constitutional disputes about church and state, and
stirred controversies about whether religion was being bent to
political purposes.

Opponents of the administration made it a chief point of attack;
defenders extolled it: President Bush devoted more than 50 speeches to
its virtues, 7 in one 17-day stretch in July 2001 alone.

The controversy boomed at a symbolic level even though there was
little clarity about what, exactly, the program involved or how it
worked or, for that matter, what the very label "faith-based" covered.

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And it makes sense from an efficiency standard.

Churches and faith based institutions are "on-the-ground" with organizational structures in place, teams of volunteers ready to be mobilized, and accountability to the community in place.