Columnist Questions Faith-Based New Orleans Aid

James Carroll's column in today's Boston Globe asks whether "the abysmal performance of government agencies in responding to this crisis [in New Orleans] isn't related to the unprecedented emphasis the government itself has been putting on ''faith-based" groups as key providers of social services." He continues:

Even when faith-based groups claim to offer social services with no strings attached, one must ask if such detachment is possible.... The problem is redoubled when religiously sponsored good works supply essential needs in place of government responses. Something essential to democracy is at stake here. The rights of citizens to basic relief, especially in times of crisis, are rooted not in charity, but in justice. Charity can be an affront to the dignity of citizenship. Citizens in a democracy, after all, are the owners of government; therefore government help is a form of self-help.