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Other grantees include the Christian Community Health Fellowship of Illinois, which got $1.1 million; Nueva Esperanza, a Hispanic, Philadephia-based group, which got the largest grant, nearly $2.5 million; the United Way of Massachusetts Bay, $2 million; Catholic Charities of Central New Mexico, $1 million, and Volunteers of America, $700,000. Another $850,000 was given "to support research on how these groups provide social services and the role they play in communities." One of these research grants went to the University of Pennsylvania, home of John DiIulio, the initial head of Bush's Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, who resigned after eight "controversy-filled" months. Compassion Capital Fund grants was awarded to faith-based groups even though a compromise version of the president's faith-based initiative continues to languish in Congress. However, Congress did give HHS $30 million, reports AP, "to help implement one of the least controversial pieces of his plan: helping small groups that may be doing excellent work in their communities gain the expertise needed to win large grants and grow." Bush is asking Congress for $100 million in unrestricted funds for next year, and while the House has agreed to the increase, the Senate has preferred to keep the funding at this year's level. By sidestepping Congress through discretionary grants such as the recent HHS awards, the administration doesn't have to deal with such thorny issues as separation of church and state, and discriminatory hiring practices by faith-based organizations - particularly directed at gays and lesbians. According to an AP interview this summer, Bobby Polito, who directs the HHS faith-based grant program said, "groups getting grants or subgrants will be allowed to consider religion in hiring and firing workers." Polito also acknowledged that he didn't think there was a "problem using federal money for a program in which prayer is central, as long as tax dollars are paying for secular elements of the program." He also acknowledged that "groups will not be required to separate the religious and secular elements of their programs. Liberals object to both approaches, saying participants should be allowed to opt out of anything religious." Robertson's early reservations When President Bush announced his faith-based initiative in January 2001, Pat Robertson was among the first on the Religious Right to blast the initiative. "I really don't know what to do," Robertson told viewers of his 700 Club. "But this thing could be a real Pandora's box. And what seems to be such a great initiative can rise up to bite the organizations as well as the federal government. And I'm a little concerned about it, frankly."
Panty hose, chocolate and other charitable offerings According to its website, the mission of Operation Blessing International (OBI) "is to demonstrate God's love by alleviating human need and suffering in the United States and around the world (http://www.ob.org/). Founded in 1978 by Pat Robertson, the organization "was originally set up to help struggling individuals and families by matching their needs for items such as clothing, appliances, and vehicles with donated items from viewers of The 700 Club." In 1986, Operation Blessing International Relief and Development Corporation (OBI) was formed as a 501(c) (3) non-profit organization to handle international relief projects. In 1993, all Operation Blessing activities were transferred to OBI. While OBI trumpets its work at home and abroad through its website, other sources provide a more nuanced picture. In 1996, the Norfolk, Virginia-based Virginia-Pilot newspaper reported that two pilots who were hired by the charity to fly humanitarian aid to Zaire in 1994 were used almost exclusively for Robertson's diamond mining operations. Chief pilot Robert Hinkle claimed that in the six months he flew for Operation Blessing, only one or two of more than 40 flights were humanitarian - the rest carried mining equipment. OBI resources were being diverted to support the African Development Co., a private corporation run by Robertson. At the time, Robertson also had a special relationship with Zaire's late dictator, Mobutu Sese Seko. "My first impression when I took the job was that we'd be called Operation Blessing and we'd be doing humanitarian work," Hinkle, a former Peace Corps volunteer told the Virginia-Pilot. "We got over there and 'Operation Blessing' was painted on the tails of the airplanes, but we were doing no humanitarian relief at all. We were just supplying the miners and flying the dredges from Kinshasa out to Tshikapa." At first, an OPI spokesperson denied the charges. Later, however, a written statement from the group admitted Robertson's mining company used Operation Blessing planes "from time to time," but that most air missions in Zaire were for humanitarian or training purposes. "For example, medicine was transported to some 17 clinics in Zaire," the spokesman told the paper. Hinkle called the OPI statement "a clear-cut lie." In February 1995, TIME magazine reported that Robertson's relationship with Sese Seko began after a branch of Operation Blessing "botched a corn-cultivation project on a 50,000-acre farm outside the capital, Kinshasa." Time also reported that in 1993, during the Rwandan refugee crisis, Operation Blessing "was criticized for spending too much money on transportation, pulling its workers out too soon and proselytizing. 'They were laying on hands," an American aid worker said. They were "speaking in tongues and holding services while people were dying all around," she added. TIME points out that although "many relief agencies are notorious for mismanagement and backbiting…Operation Blessing drew a considerable volume of negative reviews from fellow good Samaritans." Charles Henderson, a Presbyterian minister who heads up Christianity.about.com, recently pointed out that in 2001 Operation Blessing made some awfully strange purchases. The organization that prides itself on helping the poor and hungry in third world countries, spent more than $2.5 million on Ensure, a dietary supplement and Splenda, a no calorie sweetener and more than $10.4 million on candy and panty hose. Even more disturbing is that Operation Blessing rendered a direct grant of slightly more than $2 million to Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network - "more than half," Henderson says, "of the entire OBI budget for direct grants." Faith-based and expense free?
Digging further, Henderson discovered that the remaining $25 million did not go to individuals, but rather "to 'organizations' that are providing the actual services to individuals. Here," Henderson admits, "the trail becomes murky as one would have to follow the money through the finances of each of these organizations to find out what percentage of their income, including the income from Operation Blessing, goes for administration." Henderson: "I'll wager that an additional percentage - if they are as 'efficient' as Operation Blessing itself the figure would be 30% -- is sliced off the top of the money they receive from Operation Blessing to pay for THEIR administrative expenses. That being the case, we would have about half of all donations to Operation Blessing reaching those who are truly needy." Several years ago there were national scandals about the administrative overhead of United Way organizations in a number of cities. OPI's overhead gives the United Way more than a run for its money. Robertson's unique blend of business, evangelism and politics has resulted in the $500,000 award from HHS. Interestingly enough, the grant was announced less than two weeks before Robertson's Christian Coalition is scheduled to hold its "Road to Victory" conference in Washington - its annual gathering of Religious Right leaders and conservative politicos. Is the HHS grant payback for past support and/or a down payment for the future? Whatever the case, one thing appears certain; a quieted Robertson has now fallen into the camp of former critics of the president's faith-based initiative. |
Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson awarded $500,000 to Pat Robertson's Operation Blessing International 
Though at first skeptical of Bush's 'faith-based initiative' in early 2001, Robertson has warmed up to its rewards 
Bush announces his 'faith-based initiative'