Pertaining to any of a group of faith-based initiatives, e.g. the Bush Administration’s proposals to give religious charitable social-service groups federal grant money. Originally implemented during the Reagan Administration, these unfunded faith-based initiatives filled the void caused by many federal social programs that were eliminated or suffered severe budget cuts. The cuts were needed to pay for the federal budget increases for military expenditures.
Although seemingly a violation of the First Amendment Establishment Clause which established a seperation of church and state, faith-based initiatives are a convenient way to funnel federal money to primarily Christian organizations in return for unwavering political support. Most opponents of these initiatives fear the influence of the government on particular religious organizations and
the impact of religious groups on the people they are trying to help – and rightly so. Conveniently, religious organizations can apply xenophobic discrimination in providing services based on faith.
