[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 40, Number 23 (Monday, June 7, 2004)]
[Pages 974-980]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks to the White House National Conference on Faith-Based and 
Community Initiatives

June 1, 2004

    Thank you all for coming. Thank you all. Please be seated, thanks 
for coming. Thank you so much.
    I want to thank you all for caring about your country enough that 
you are here to inspire others as to how to save lives. Welcome to 
Washington, DC. I want to thank Tonja Myles, the director of Set Free 
Indeed, from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, for introducing me. Tonja is--when 
I talk about people involved in saving people's lives, I'm speaking 
about people like Tonja and those on the stage with me. You heard their 
stories. I have too. And on behalf of a grateful nation, I thank them 
and you for serving in the army of compassion.
    By feeding the hungry, by healing the addicted, by loving and caring 
for refugees, you represent the true strength, the real strength, the 
genuine strength of the United States of America. And I am grateful for 
what you do.
    We're here to talk today about the relationship between people of 
faith and Government policy. I believe it is in the national interest 
that Government stand side by side with people of faith who work to 
change lives for the better. I understand in the past, some in 
Government have said Government cannot stand side by side with people of 
faith. Let me put it more bluntly, Government can't spend money on 
religious programs simply because there's a rabbi on the board, cross on 
the wall, or a crescent on the door. I viewed this as not only bad 
social policy--because policy bypassed the great works of compassion and 
healing that take place--I viewed it as discrimination. And we needed to 
change it.
    So we've hosted regional conferences to raise the issue. I try to 
talk about the Faith-Based Initiative a lot. Part of my job is to say to 
the American people, ``Here is a fantastic opportunity to help America 
become what we want it to be, a land of hope and promise and love and 
compassion.''
    And so we're--and we're having regional conferences like this. I'm 
proud to report that we've reached more than 10,000 faith-based and 
community groups with the message that we want your help, that the 
Federal Government now welcomes your work, and do not fear being 
discriminated against by the Government.
    Listen, I fully understand there are people in the faith community 
who have said, ``Why do I want to interface with the Federal 
Government?'' [Laughter] ``Why would I want to interface with a group of 
people that want to try to get me to not practice my faith?'' It's hard 
to be a faith-based program if you can't practice faith, and the message 
to you is, ``We're changing the culture here in America.''
    And we're making progress. We're changing the attitude here in 
Washington, DC. I want to thank the Cabinet Secretaries who are here. It 
should indicate to you that my Cabinet not only has gotten the directive 
from the President that I expect all Cabinets to be open to faith-based 
programs, but it should speak to the character of the people who I've 
called to serve the country. Secretary Ann Veneman, Elaine Chao, Rod 
Paige, Tony Principi, thank you all for coming today. Hector Barreto of 
the SBA and Andrew Natsios of USAID, thank you all for coming. I see the 
Justice Department is represented by Deputy Attorney General Jim Comey. 
Thank you all for coming. This is a--HUD is represented.

[[Page 975]]

    Listen, what I'm telling you is, is that I told our Government, the 
people in my Government, ``Rather than fear faith programs, welcome 
them. They're changing America. They do a better job than Government can 
do.'' [Applause] Thank you all.
    I know Jim Ryun is here, the Congressman from Kansas, and his wife, 
Anne. Thanks for coming. There he is. My advice is don't go jogging with 
him. [Laughter]
    I have to tell you, I came from a--what we call a roundtable--the 
table happened to be square, but it's one of those Government things--
[laughter]--where I met with some healers and doers and community 
changers.
    Mark Franken is the executive director of Migration and Refugee 
Services of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops--is with us. Wintley 
Phipps is the founder, president, and CEO of the U.S. Dream Academy, 
from Columbia, Maryland. Archbishop Harry Flynn of the Archdiocese of 
Minneapolis; Bishop Don Wuerl, the Bishop of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; 
my friend from the great State of Texas, Tony Evans of the Oak Cliff 
Bible Fellowship. There's a few Texans here, Tony, that know of you. 
Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church, Lake Forest, California; 
Reverend Cheryl Anthony Mobley is the founder and CEO of the Judah 
International, from Brooklyn; and from a local church here, Jim Sprouse, 
the pastor of Trinity United Methodist.
    We talked about what they see, what they hear, the frustrations in 
dealing with the Government. It's part of making sure--this outreach is 
part of making sure that I hear as best I can firsthand from people 
whether or not the strategy is being properly implemented, because I 
understand amongst our prosperity there is suffering still and despair 
in America. And that troubles every American, regardless of their 
political standing or where they're from. Where there is despair, we 
must work to provide hope. Where there is loneliness, we must work to 
provide love.
    There are men and women in our country who doubt, who have serious 
doubts about what we call the American Dream. And that--as the President 
of a country who has heralded the American Dream, that's troubling to 
realize that some citizens simply cannot connect with that notion of 
dreaming about the future. There are--there is loneliness, and you know 
what I'm talking about. There are people who are so addicted to alcohol 
and drugs that their vision is clouded, that they can't see a more 
hopeful tomorrow. These are the types of problems we face.
    As well our great Nation receives tens of thousands of refugees, 
which is good, by the way, that America be a welcoming society. These 
souls flee persecution and need help when they come to our country. Not 
only are there people in our neighborhoods who are addicted and lonely 
and homeless and hungry; there are people who've come from faraway lands 
that need the same concern and care and love that our fellow citizens 
receive.
    We've got teenage mothers in America who feel abandoned and in need. 
There are children in America, whose mom or dad is in prison, wondering 
whether or not there's any hope. In other words, we got problems in this 
society, and those of us who have been given the high honor of holding 
office must utilize every resource, every power we have to help solve 
those problems for the good of the country.
    See, I understand the limitations of government. Governments can 
hand out money. But governments cannot put love in a person's heart or a 
sense of purpose in a person's life. The truth of the matter is that 
comes when a loving citizen puts their arm around a brother and sister 
in need and says, ``I love you, and God loves you, and together we can 
perform miracles.''
    And miracles happen all the time in America. They happen because 
loving souls take time out of their lives to spread compassion and love. 
And lives are changing. Listen, our society is going to change, one 
heart and one soul at a time. It changes from the bottom up, not the top 
down. It changes when the soldiers in the armies of compassion feel 
wanted, encouraged, and empowered. And that's what the Faith-Based and 
Community Initiative is all about. How do we gather up the strength of 
the country, the vibrancy of faith-based programs? The social 
entrepreneurs, how do we encourage them?
    And one way to do so is to hold conferences like these that, 
frankly, give me a chance and a platform to speak to the country

[[Page 976]]

and say as clearly as I can, ``We welcome the army of compassion. We 
understand the power of faith in America, and the Federal Government 
will assist--not discriminate against you.''
    There is no better way to clarify for our fellow citizens the power 
of faith-based programs than to speak about examples, to hold up stories 
about lives who have been changed, starting with Veronica Braewell.
    I just met with Veronica. The folks I told you were at the 
roundtable met with Veronica. Veronica is--was from Liberia. She's a 
refugee. She was telling us what it's like to see the violence and 
horror that took place in that country as rebel groups swept through the 
land, taking lives if they just felt like it. And this young lady 
clearly has got a large heart and deep concern for her fellow citizens. 
She came, and the Catholic Social Agency in Allentown, Pennsylvania--a 
faith-based group, by the way--took her and her family into their 
collective bosom and loved them. And they helped her find jobs and a 
place to live and clothing and transportation.
    You can imagine what it would be like to be a young girl coming from 
Liberia, having been traumatized by violence, to a strange country. 
Fortunately, her arrival was aided by people who said, ``Gosh, what can 
I do to help change somebody's life and to help them?'' She's just 
completed her training to be a nursing assistant. Soon, she'll start 
work at a senior care facility near her home. She said this, ``It's like 
a second hope again. I believe in myself. I am grateful to God.'' Thanks 
to the Catholic Social Agency in Allentown, Pennsylvania, a soul has 
been lifted.
    Elijah Anyieth is with us. He was born in a rural village in Sudan. 
He fled as a young man when his village was bombed, and he just 
wandered--talked about sleeping on the ground, looking for food. 
Fortunately, the Commonwealth Catholic Charities helped rescue him, and 
he found a home near Richmond, Virginia. With the help of the program, 
he graduated from high school with honors. Last month, he finished his 
first year of college. He's studying to be a mechanical engineer. Here's 
what he said, ``When I imagine my life now and how it would have been, I 
can't find ways to thank them enough.'' He's talking about the 
Commonwealth Catholic Charities staff. See, the faith-based program 
helped save this guy's life and helped him have a bright future.
    I met Derrill Frazier. He should be up here, not me. Needless to 
say, when his story is--he's a young guy. He's never seen his mom or 
rarely sees his mom, never met his dad, who is in prison, serving a 
lifetime in prison. By the way, his grandmother, Constance Morgan, 
brought him here today. It was my honor to meet Constance. You know what 
she told me? She said, ``Mr. President, I pray for you.''
    Derrill joined the U.S. Dream Academy. It's a mentorship program 
funded by the Health and Human Services. See, Health and Human Services 
is now funding a faith-based program that encourages mentors, people to 
interface in the lives of a fellow like Derrill who wonders whether 
there's any hope for him. He plays basketball, and he talks about his 
favorite subject--this is with his mentor--U.S. history. I kind of liked 
U.S. history too. [Laughter]
    Here's what he said: ``I don't sit around just watching TV anymore. 
I like school. If I don't go to school, I can't reach my goals--to go to 
college and become a lawyer.'' See, here's a fellow who all of the 
sudden has got a goal. He's been inspired by something government really 
can't provide, which is a loving person to interface with him in a way 
that helps--changes his life.
    The grant came out of the Federal Government to help fund this 
mentoring program. It is money well spent. The taxpayers of the country 
must understand that we should not focus on the process; we ought to 
focus on the results.
    Let me tell you about this story. It is a success story because of a 
faith-based program. Brad Lassiter--he's the youngest of 17 children. He 
spent most of his childhood without a home. His education ended in the 
fourth grade. Essentially, he was abandoned and lived on the street, got 
addicted to drugs, took a bullet in the mouth, actually, at one point in 
his life, went to prison. And Gospel Rescue Ministries gave him a place 
to live when he came out of prison. See, he started reading the Bible in 
prison. It is a powerful change agent when you start reading the

[[Page 977]]

Bible in prison. And this guy was lost, and now he's found.
    He said this--here's what Brad said. Brad said, ``God blessed me. 
The Mission gave me an opportunity to change my life spiritually, 
education-wise, and to build character. They made me want to change.'' 
Actually, they were the agents, Brad. They were just the messenger. When 
he finished his recovery--I want you to hear the story--this is a guy 
abandoned on the streets, drug addict, couldn't read beyond the third 
grade. He now has a job at the World Bank, and he's going to college to 
study computer science.
    America changes one heart at a time, one soul at a time, and while 
our fellow citizens can't do everything, they can do something to help 
change America one soul at a time. That's the philosophy behind the 
faith-based groups. It is the Government's strong desire to empower this 
fabric, this social fabric of our society where faith-based programs 
large and small feel empowered, encouraged, and welcomed into changing 
lives.
    Look, I fully understand it's important to maintain the separation 
of church and state. We don't want the state to become the church, nor 
do we want the church to become the state. We're on common agreement 
there. But I do believe that groups should be allowed to access social 
service grants so long as they don't proselytize or exclude somebody 
simply because they don't share a certain faith. In other words, there's 
a way to accomplish the separation of church and state and, at the same 
time, accomplish the social objective of having America become a hopeful 
place and a loving place. And so I want to--so the question this 
administration is starting to ask or is asking is, ``Are you getting the 
results?'' That's all we care about. Are you meeting the standards of 
church and state, and are you getting results? And if so, if you say, 
``Yes,'' the Federal Government, rather than being fearful of you, ought 
to say, ``Thank you. Thank you for doing your mission to change the 
United States of America.''
    So I wanted to make sure that the faith-based groups simply got 
equal access and equal treatment when it came to the billions of dollars 
we spend at the Federal level. That was the first step toward making 
sure the Faith-Based Initiative was strong and vibrant.
    And of course, it got stuck in the Congress. [Laughter] It's a 
process debate that takes places up on Capitol Hill rather than a 
results-oriented debate. If you're a results-oriented debater, you say, 
``All I care about is making sure that the addict receives help. And if 
it takes changing a person's heart to change addiction, we ought to 
welcome the power that changes a person's heart in our society.''
    So I got frustrated and signed an Executive order. [Laughter] And it 
said that--it directed the Federal agencies, which are run by some of 
the folks here, that we will reverse regulations that discriminate 
against faith-based organizations. There were regulations on the books 
that made it nearly impossible for people of faith--all faiths, by the 
way. When you hear me talk about faith, I'm talking about all faiths, 
whether it be the Jewish faith or the Christian faith or the Muslim 
faith or the Hindu faith. All faiths have got the power to transform 
lives.
    In other words, they made it easier for people of all faith to 
access the billions--we spend billions of dollars here in Washington, 
DC. And those billions ought to be open for grantmaking. In other words, 
if you're able to show that you're successful at meeting social 
objectives, then you ought to be allowed to access the money. That's my 
attitude.
    And so we're making progress. I'm here to give you a progress 
report. They spent $1.1 billion on grants to faith-based groups. It's 
kind of hard to fully account for it. I would call that an estimate; 
$1.1 billion, it's an increase of 15 percent over 2002. That's good 
progress. However, there's a lot more money available. That's what I 
hope the conference explains to you, that there is money throughout our 
Government available for faith-based programs. And the idea is to teach 
you how to access that money, how to make sure the grantmaking process 
is understandable, and how to make sure that people in your communities 
do not fear the bureaucracy interfering in your mission, which is a 
vital part of having a strong, vibrant, Faith-Based Initiative.
    The other thing that's important is I wanted to make sure that as 
we--as people access

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Federal money, that it not go to the same programs over and over and 
over again. In other words, part of what we're trying to do is spur 
entrepreneurship, is to provide money for new programs to flourish and 
bloom. Remember, a faith-based program can be a mega-church--and by the 
way, there's some fantastic churches in our country who spread faith 
throughout their ministry--or it can be a five-person staff. What we're 
interested in is the ability for programs to change lives. That's what 
we're interested in.
    I was talking to Tony Evans. Tony and I--he's come up with a 
fantastic idea, by the way, to encourage more leverage in the faith 
community: Inner-city churches need to work with suburban churches and 
become the conduit for monies going into the inner city. The reason why 
is, is that the inner-city church is what we call at the grassroots. 
They understand the programs that work and the programs that don't work. 
Evans also assures me that as of being--as a result of being a 
successful church, in the sense that it's got a lot of building, a lot 
of members, and a pretty good-sized budget--by the way, he started with 
a--in a house; he started small and grew big--that he is willing to help 
young churches and faith-based programs in inner-city Dallas, Texas, as 
to how to accomplish the mission, how to grow from little to big, how to 
grow from wanting to be vibrant to successful. And that's what the 
Faith-Based Initiative is meant to do. It's meant to allow for access of 
Federal money but at the same time spawn the entrepreneurial spirit, 
what I call social entrepreneurs, and encourage their growth.
    The Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded $113 million 
in grants to first-time faith-based recipients. So in other words, what 
I'm telling you is, it's one thing to make sure that the grant process 
is open. It's another thing to make sure that as we--as money goes out 
the door, that it does so not only to achieve results but to encourage 
the development and expansion of faith-based programs throughout the 
country. There's a lot to do. Don't get me wrong. One of the great 
things about these meetings is we get feedback to improve the regulatory 
process. Look, I fully concede there's a lot of regulations in 
Washington. [Laughter] And we can always work to further reduce the 
impact of regulation, and we expect feedback from people who are 
frustrated and/or happy with the process you see.
    The Departments of Labor, Agriculture, Health and Human Services 
have issued new regulations. In other words, we're constantly fine-
tuning regulations to enforce the principle of equal treatment 
throughout their agencies. Education and Veteran Affairs have now 
completed theirs. And so one of the things that we've got to constantly 
work here on Washington is to make sure we take your feedback and change 
practice, obviously within the law, so that we can better hear the 
voices of those who are changing our country.
    USAID--many of you who have got operations overseas have interfaced 
with USAID. I appreciate Andrew Natsios changing--proposing regulations 
to end the discrimination against faith-based groups receiving foreign 
grants.
    So to make sure all this is coordinated, I picked Jim Towey. Where 
are you, Towey? There he is. Yes, he's over in the corner. See, he--
Towey was Mother Teresa's lawyer. [Laughter] Now that is a litigious 
society if Mother Teresa needs a lawyer. [Laughter] Anyway, he's a good 
one.
    So he has an office in the White House. I see Towey a lot because 
this is an initiative that is important for America and the future. 
Jim's job has been to set up these meetings to listen to people out in 
the field, to answer questions. His job is to answer my questions, like 
how much money has gone out the door? It's one thing to have a Faith-
Based Initiative, but if nobody is getting any grants, it's just paper. 
I'm not interested in paper. I'm not--I'm here--I'm not here--I'm here 
to try to make a change for the better. I'm interested in results. Towey 
has heard me say it a lot. ``Are we succeeding? And if not, what is 
causing us--what is frustrating--where are the bottlenecks to success? 
Where are the problems?'' He's constantly asking those questions.
    That's why we set up faith-based offices in the Cabinet--in our 
Cabinet agencies. See, I want somebody responsible so when they report 
to the Secretary and I get on the Secretary, the Secretary can take it 
back

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down the chain of command and say, ``Why are we frustrating people here? 
How come we haven't done a better job?'' They're constantly asking the 
questions of their faith-based offices to make sure that the mission is 
accomplished.
    Now, look, one of the--part of the feedback we've gotten is that 
there's a bottleneck at the State and local governments. Some of the 
money--[applause]--yes, see what I mean? [Laughter] Some of the money is 
block-granted to States. And therefore, if there's not a Governor who 
has a faith-based office who understands the vast potential of changing 
their State, you'll be frustrated. I know that. So part of our mission 
is to work with you to help change the attitude at the State level. We 
got our hands full here, by the way, too. Don't get me wrong. [Laughter] 
There's a bureaucratic mindset that we're working to change in 
Washington, but we also want to help you with the Governors and mayors.
    There are--there's 20 Governors and over 100 mayors who have faith-
based offices. I think when people realize that more money is now 
available to the faith communities, they'll change their attitude about 
whether or not to be accommodating to faith-based programs. I think 
they'll change their attitude. They should change their attitude because 
if they dig into their societies, get in the cities, and find out the 
lives that are being changed and realize their communities are better 
for it, they will say, ``Give me the results.'' They'll say, ``I'm a 
better mayor or Governor because lives are changing, not because of me 
but because of the faith community that's changing America one heart at 
a time.''
    I have called upon Congress. Not only do we want to make sure that 
the monies being spent now are accessible to the faith community but we 
want to make sure that--I've called upon for some specific programs to 
help the faith community. One is called Access to Recovery. It is a $100 
million initiative to help the addict--is what it is. It's an 
interesting approach to funding social programs. In this case, we 
actually fund the addict. In other words, the money goes to the addict, 
and the addict gets to choose the program that is best for her or him. 
It's a change in attitude. Generally, we kind of tend to fund the 
program, oftentimes not asking whether they're effective or not. This 
time we're sending the money to the addict so that the addict can make 
the decision that meets his or her needs. I will tell you, the 
cornerstone of any good recovery program is the understanding there is a 
Higher Being to which--to whom you can turn your life and therefore save 
your life. It is the crux of many, many a successful addiction program. 
It--and our Government ought to understand that. Congress needs to 
provide ample money for the Access to Recovery initiative to help 
addicts change their lives by saving their lives.
    I am deeply concerned about a society in which many boys and girls 
need love. They need--and I mentioned to you my concern about a child 
whose mom or dad is in prison. It's got to be incredibly lonely to have 
your mom or dad in prison, wondering whether or not--she's wondering 
whether there's any hope, you know?
    And there is hope, particularly when that child feels love. And so 
I've asked Congress to provide money for mentoring programs, 
particularly for a child who--whose mom or dad is in prison. And many of 
those mentoring programs come right out of inner-city churches and 
suburban churches. Listen, some of the best mentoring programs in 
America happen out of our churches and synagogues and mosques. And we 
ought not to be afraid of funding of those programs.
    After all, if you exist because you've heard the universal call to 
love a neighbor like you'd like to be loved yourself, if that is the 
creed, the cornerstone, then surely out of that organization will come 
people who are willing to do so. And part of loving your neighbor like 
you'd like to be loved yourself is mentoring a child and saying, ``You 
may be lonely, but I love you,'' and ``What can I do to help lift your 
spirit?'' So I put in funding requests for programs such as this.
    Six hundred thousand--more than 600,000 inmates will be released 
from prison this year. Those are a lot of souls that need help coming 
into our society. I can't think of a better place for a prisoner to go--
is to a church or a synagogue or a mosque and say, ``I need help. I have 
just come out of incarceration, and can you help me with my

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life and the future? Can you provide guidance for me?'' And so we've got 
a $300 million initiative I put before Congress to help with these 
prison reentry programs, all of which will give our faith community a 
chance to heal the broken heart.
    One of the things--I'll never forget this--when I was the Governor 
of Texas, one of the early initiatives in my governorship, one of the 
faith-based initiatives, was to turn over a part of the prison unit to a 
faith program, Chuck Colson's program. He convinced me that this would 
be a great opportunity to change lives. And it would be better than 
stamping license plates. And so we put a voluntary program in the prison 
unit in Fort Bend County, Texas--the Sugarland, Texas, area. And I went 
over to see the program, and sure enough, I was talking about it on the 
microphones and out comes the prison choir. Now, this wasn't exactly a 
really large choir. It was probably 10 people. And I got in the mood and 
starting singing ``Amazing Grace'' with the Sugarland Prison choir, from 
this unit that was a faith-based unit. And I'm rocking back and forth 
with a guy, and on the front page of the Houston Chronicle is a 
picture--[laughter]--is a picture of me and a guy who has been in prison 
for 19 years for murder. [Laughter] The other day, we have a meeting in 
the White House, in the Roosevelt Room, and sure enough, sitting next to 
me is the guy who I rocked with who is now--[laughter]--whose life was 
changed and saved because of faith.
    I'm telling America we need to not discriminate against faith-based 
programs. We need to welcome them so our society is more wholesome, more 
welcoming, and more hopeful for every single citizen.
    I want to thank you all for coming. Thank you all. One last word: I 
want to thank you for coming. It warms my heart to know that I am the 
President of a country full of so many decent, caring people. The 
strength of this country is not our military or the size of our wallets. 
The strength of this country is the hearts and souls of the American 
people. That is the thing, in my judgment, that makes this country 
unique and different and strong. My job as the President of the United 
States is understand that and, as best as I humanly can, to elevate the 
spirit of the country, to call upon people to follow their hearts, to 
say to the Federal Government, ``Stand beside these soldiers, not 
against them. Be a wind at their back, not at their face, so that 
America can reach its full potential, so every citizen, regardless of 
race, creed, background, can have a chance to realize the full promise, 
the full extended promise of the greatest country on the face of this 
Earth.''
    May God bless you and your works, and may God continue to bless the 
United States of America. Thank you all.

Note: The President spoke at 10:22 a.m. at the Washington Hilton and 
Towers. In his remarks, he referred to Charles W. Colson, founder, 
Prison Fellowship Ministries.