In an odd political twist, a group of black ministers led by the Rev. Eugene F. Rivers of Boston will hurry to the White House tomorrow to help President Bush shore up his embattled plan to increase federal funding for faith-based charitable organizations.
The ministers, whose constituents voted 10 to 1 against Bush in the 2000 election, say they are appalled by attacks on the faith-based initiative by Evangelical Christians and other religious conservatives - groups normally allied with the Republican Party but dismayed that Bush does not want his new office to help bolster religious conversion efforts.
Rivers and his colleagues fear church-based inner-city charities - like Rivers' own Azusa Christian Community in Dorchester - will be the big losers of federal charitable funding if Bush's effort founders over religious politics.
``The opposition that the White House is now facing,'' Rivers said, ``seems to us to be the result of an expectation by the religious right that the faith-based office would be a financial cash cow for sectarian white Evangelicals and for the Republican Party's right wing.''
Bush officials declined yesterday to comment on the meeting, reportedly scheduled for 2:30 p.m. But the visit, sought urgently by a dozen or so leaders of black ministries around the nation, adds yet another layer of political intrigue to an issue that has agitated a wide range of ideological factions.
Bush's faith-based initiative - a focal point of his presidential campaign and a centerpiece of his first 100 days in office - had already been a bugaboo among left-leaning groups scornful of federal support for religious programs.
The heart of the initiative is legislation that would allow religious groups to qualify for federal tax money to assist the needy without first altering or eliminating the theological nature of their programs, or forming secular spin-off organizations, as most groups applying for federal funding now do.
Left-leaning groups feared the effort would be skewed to favor the interests of religious conservatives, even though the office itself is being run by a liberal Catholic academic, John J. DiIulio Jr. of the University of Pennsylvania.
DiIulio, a pugnacious social activist, antagonized many religious conservatives recently when he asserted that ``Bible thumping won't cut it'' as a component of tax-funded religious aid work.
Now, partly as a result of DiIulio's personality, and partly due to ingrained suspicion of federal intrusion in religious affairs, the Bush initiative is under withering fire from his allies on the right.
The crossfire is generating a political fusillade that threatens to kill off the effort in its fledgling stages, which would be an embarrassment for Bush and a financial blow to the black ministries, who believe they have a friend in the new office not just in DiIulio but in the person of his top aide, the Rev. Mark Scott of Dorchester.
The twin threats helped prompt tomorrow's unusual spectacle of black leaders hustling to stand beside Bush at the White House.
``The more time passes, the less people like the Bush faith-based plan,'' said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, head of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. ``Government-funded religion violates the First Amendment and is unpopular with the American people. I hope Bush sees the writing on the church-state wall and gives up on this unconstitutional monstrosity.''
During the presidential campaign, Bush's idea was wholly embraced by Christian conservatives, who voted nearly 5 to 1 for Bush. But in the past few days, influential political groups with religious underpinnings, including the Christian Coalition and Jerry Falwell Ministries, have denounced the direction that the faith-based initiative is taking.
Among their critiques are that any and all religious groups, including the Nation of Islam and Hare Krishna movement, and possibly including the Unification Church and the Church of Scientology, would be eligible for the funding. They have also balked at the possibility that proselytizing groups such as Evangelicals might be denied grants if they used the money to emphasize conversions or produce religious pamphlets.
``No matter that some may use brainwashing techniques,'' the Rev. Pat Robertson said on his television program, ``The 700 Club,'' last week, ``all must receive taxpayer funds if they provide `effective service for the poor.' . . .
``All of sudden,'' he added, ``some bureaucrat says, `We will give you tons of money, but you can't talk about your faith, you can't teach them the Torah, can't talk about Jesus,' or what have you. At that point they have essentially killed the essence of that organization.''
As a result of the controversy, Senate backers of the president's effort - to be called the White House Office on Faith-Based and Community Initiatives - say they are not ready to include funding for the office in a bill now making its way through the Congress.
``Some serious questions have been raised from the left and right about the president's proposal,'' said Sen. and Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn), who, along with Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), had joined Bush six weeks ago at the launching of the initiative, and had vowed to shepherd it into law.
Rivers, who insists that his coalition is opposed using federal funds for religious conversions, says he will be joined at the White House by Bishop Charles E. Blake, of the Pan-African Charismatic Evangelical Congress and pastor of the West Los Angeles Church of God in Christ-Pentacostal; Bishop T.D. Jakes of the Potter House Church in Dallas; Bishop T.E. Patterson of Memphis, and the Rev. Frank Madison Reid 3d of Bethel AME Church, Baltimore.
``Bush is now challenged head-on because he can't afford to be seen as caving in to the radical right,'' said Rivers, who sees the new office as a way to facilitate the flow of federal aid to church-based social-service agencies in urban areas that might otherwise never see federal money. ``This is a key way for Bush to reach out to black communities if he hopes to make any headway with them before the 2004 election.''