Under the auspices of the Free Congress Foundation, the Coalition for Compassion was formed to promote equal standing for faith-based social service providers with other social service groups. Below is a statement of purpose signed by the Coalition's member organizations in April 2001.

STATEMENT OF THE COALITION FOR COMPASSION

We welcome President Bush's call for an increased partnership among government and community and faith-based organizations in meeting human needs in our nation, and we support the emerging consensus among Americans of widely divergent religious and political viewpoints that faith-based community helpers and healers are essential resources in caring for the needy.

We therefore heartily applaud the initiative of President Bush to eliminate barriers to the full participation of religiously inspired agencies and individuals in the effort to address human needs.

We encourage the enactment of new tax policies aimed at encouraging more charitable giving, and we are confident that such measures will, in time, open floodgates of generosity.

We look forward to reviewing specific proposals to incorporate faith-based organizations more fully into the task of aiding those in need, and we offer the following principles to guide the formation of those proposals:

Existing legal and civil rights protections for all beneficiaries and providers of government-financed social services must be preserved.

No faith-based organization shall be required to surrender or suspend its constitutionally protected rights to freedom of religious belief and practice as a condition of participating in any government-financed program to aid those in need, nor may government officials exercise authority over religious content.

Non-discrimination with respect to religion must be maintained in all relations between government and faith-based organizations, extending not only to avoiding preferences between one religion and another but also to avoiding preferences between religious and non-religious providers and avoiding exclusion of any particular religion.

The only fair criterion for assessing the right of any provider to participate in the delivery of government-financed social service is its effectiveness in meeting the needs of the beneficiaries.

Government funds must not be used to pay for religious instruction or instructional material, but a faith-based organization that accomplishes socially beneficial purposes through a pervasively religious approach may receive funding for other expenses equivalent to what other faith-based or secular government grantees receive.

If an individual has an objection to the religious character of a faith-based organization that is providing services, the individual may leave the program and must be provided by the governmental entity with an alternative program that is acceptable to the individual.

The same standards of financial accountability should be applied to religious as well as non-religious providers of services regarding the expenditure of government funds.

Within a framework that is firmly based on the foundational principles of American liberty, we are confident that the energies and resources of America's compassionate citizens can be massively mobilized to care for all of our neighbors who find themselves in need.