TIME FOR THAT OL' TIME RELIGION-THE PRIVATE KIND

THAT old-time religion is all the rage.

President George W. Bush is promoting the idea that community-based
religious groups should get more government money to do the work they do
already with government and private funds they already get. That is, feed
the hungry, shelter the homeless, comfort the afflicted.

No one from the administration is pledging more money for such noble
missions as drug-abuse treatment and prisoner rehabilitation. The surplus
is already spoken for with Bush's promises for a big tax cut and a military
buildup. It seems, rather, that a few different sectarian groups might gain
access to the same pennies others scrounge for now.

Nor can officials explain their central claim that religious groups suffer
discrimination in getting funds to support humanitarian endeavors. Catholic
Charities, Lutheran Social Services, various Jewish federations and the
Salvation Army already rely, for large parts of their budgets, on grants
from federal, state and local governments.

They cannot now preach with the taxpayer money, and that seems to be the
difference Bush seeks.

On Capitol Hill, Bush's choice for attorney general, John Ashcroft, has
cited religion-though not his own-as the reason he opposed a gay man's
nomination to be an ambassador. In trying to explain why he opposed the
naming of James Hormel to be ambassador to Luxembourg, Ashcroft said he did
not believe Hormel would be able to serve effectively there as, Ashcroft
said, it was "the most Roman Catholic country in all of Europe." In fact,
during the 1999 imbroglio over the Hormel nomination, the government of
Luxembourg said it welcomed the appointment.

Religious fervor also breaks out in Virginia, home to many of the new Bush
administration appointees as well as members of Congress who will vote on
his programs.

The state legislature there is debating a measure to require all schools to
post the motto "In God We Trust." This, in a state-like so many
others-where those who worship Allah, Buddha and other deities are
increasingly coming to work, study-and, yes, pay taxes.

The motto began appearing on paper currency in 1957-about the same time
rock and roll, beatniks and all manner of other plagues were unleashed and,
in the view of many, started the downward cultural spiral that now requires
us to consider posting the slogan in schools. The greenback, evidently, did
not do the trick.

Now, there is every good reason to believe that spiritual healing works for
millions, as it has throughout history. Bush himself quit drinking in part
through religious faith. There is reason to support religious-based social
service organizations, so long as what they provide is social service. They
deserve profound thanks, for these groups try to fill the inhuman gap in
the safety net torn wide two decades ago.

This does not mean that public money, and public life, should become
further entangled with religion. There is no reason to support religious
indoctrination, no matter how pure the purpose, with tax money.

It would, like all public programs, require choices. And when you start
talking about government officials choosing among religious groups you are
really saying something dangerous, almost subversive, though few dare say it.

It is time to step back from this precipice. Time to go back to the good
old days.

Those were the days when religion was private. You were no more likely to
ask a friend if she skipped mass, or had a gay brother, or kept strictly
kosher-or really, truly, prayed during that moment of silence-than you
would ask what someone's parents fought about. Religion was for families,
not government. And most certainly not politicians, save those who showed
up for St. Patrick's Day.

It is an awfully long leap from those cheerful panderers to the unseemly
public atonement that first Bill Clinton and now, Jesse Jackson, have seen
fit to make. It is further, still, to the latest bipartisan craze for
public displays of religiosity-let alone the expenditure of public funds
for clearly religious purposes. It makes many people more wary, more
suspicious of political motive. It is awfully hard to see how this protects
true faith.