Why is Charitable Choice a danger to religious organizations who participate?
Melissa Rogers, former General Counsel of the Joint Baptist Committee, wrote of the dangers to religious organizations who participate under Charitable Choice in an Op-Ed article published in the Washington Post on June 23, 1999: “Put simply, charitable choice is the wrong way to do right. For one thing, religious ministries would be regulated by the government, which would mean audits and, probably, tedious reporting, intrusive compliance reviews and even the subordination of religious principles to government policies and objectives … under charitable choice, religious ministries could become administrative centers for government benefits and services and gain associated benefits such as terminating benefits, reporting on beneficiaries and otherwise policing the system. If tax subsidies flow to churches and other religious ministries, the role of religion as the prophetic critic of government also will be diminished.” In fact, we are starting to see examples of this kind of intrusi
