Newsweek and The Washington Post have an online blog called On Faith, where scholars, ministers, priests and others concerned with religion are invited to answer questions posed each week. Michael Otterson, the director of public affairs for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a regular panelist. This week's question:

Should the Obama Administration let faith-based programs that receive government grants discriminate against those they hire or serve?

Michael Otterson's response:

A Time for Good Works and Mutual Responsibility

While they don't have the government's resources, churches have often been in a better position to respond to local needs simply by virtue of the fact that they are more intimately involved in the day-to-day problems facing the people in their neighborhoods. They know the people—or they should. As society has grown and evolved, so have the mechanisms for providing relief to the alienated and impoverished. Much good can come from faith-based initiatives.

Nevertheless, there are pitfalls when government money is channeled to churches, as the question identifies. Does that money come only with strings attached, and are churches who accept it likely to get tangled in their own efforts to balance community needs and their own independence?

As a matter of policy and principle, my own church—The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints chooses to avoid that pitfall altogether. It simply doesn't accept government funding for its welfare efforts.

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