Blog from the Capital

Now that faith-based funding has become a reality--and is gathering a gradual acceptance--the dilemma long predicted by opponents is starting to take shape: where do we draw the line? And how do we police the murky middle where social services become religious programs? Today's Christian Science Monitor reports on the Iowa prison decision in terms of this dilemma, and while this ruling may mark a moment of resistance, pushing back against a practice that has gone unchecked, the line has clearly moved in recent years.

The trouble has been a growing ambiguity about what is and isn't acceptable, and almost no monitoring of activities once the grants have been made.

"They say 'here are the rules' and make the grants, but I think there's a lot of 'don't ask, don't tell' going on," says Ira Lupu, a law professor at George Washington University. The legal line can be ambiguous: A program that offers a meal and includes a voluntary grace would most likely be acceptable, he says, but the programs that deal with some sort of religious character transformation are problematic. "That's where you cross the line, if the government is paying for it."

Though Mr. Bush's faith-based initiative, first announced in 2001, has never received congressional approval, the program has been expanded through executive order, and Bush recently announced that federal funding to religious groups grew to $2.1 billion last year - about 11 percent of the total funds awarded to community groups.