PICK UP THY SYRINGE AND WALK, SINNER

On Bush's Faith Drive

Ask what George W Bush did as governor of Texas and most Britons would say
that he was a serial executioner and what he himself calls a "purty good
delegator" (in Bush-speak, the word rhymes with "alligator"). He let other
guys do the hard work so he could concentrate on his afternoon game of
electronic golf.

In fact, as his campaign website proclaims, George W's proudest
gubernatorial accomplishment was to make "faith-based action" the corner
stone of his state's welfare programme. The "Texas experiment" offers a
chilling insight into what "compassionate conservatism" will mean over the
next four years for 40m Americans with substance-abuse problems.

Faith-based (Holy Joe) recovery programs had been around in the Bible Belt
for ever, but never amounted to much therapeutically until Bush's advisers
noticed an obscure clause in the 1996 Welfare Reform Act ("Charitable
Choice") which for the first time enabled religious organisations to
qualify for state funding for their work with addicts.

Up to this point, rehabilitation programmes were strictly controlled.
Twelve-step groups such as AA could "counsel", but not "treat" addicts. So
too the churches, which could preach but not cure. Governor Bush changed
all that. Taking a faith-based recovery programme called Teen Challenge as
his model, he launched in 1997 "a bold experiment in welfare reform". Texas
house bills 2481 and 2482 opened the channel for state dollars through
"partnership" schemes.

More importantly, the bills released faith-based programmes from "secular"
control. They could now run their own show, without those pesky atheistic
inspectors looking over their shoulders. Bush saw himself as "unleashing"
the power of the church (that is, his church) in his war on drugs.

Bush knows at first hand about addiction. He himself underwent a
"faith-based" cure for his alcohol problem under the supervision of Billy
Graham. It was the prelude to a meteoric political career. From drunkard to
president in 10 years. It's Horatio Alger's "Log cabin to White House" for
our times.

Like his father, Bush is never strong on the "vision thing". But in his
heart, he believes with his co-religionists that "Jesus cures". Is he
himself not living proof? His guru on the doctrine of faith-based salvation
is the University of Texas journalism professor Marvin Olasky. A one-issue
Christian Conservative, Olasky helped draft Bush's 1997 manifesto, Faith in
Action: a New Vision for Church-State Cooperation. Olasky believes,
fanatically, that groups like Teen Challenge will make America strong,
clean and God-fearing again. Hallelujah.

If you believe their propaganda (I don't), faith-based programmes have two
irresistible selling points: they work and they're cheap. Their promotional
material claims 80% success rates as against a paltry 10% for traditional
AA and STI ("short term in-patient") therapies. Teen Challenge (since 1997
supported jointly by church donations and state funds) costs the Texas
taxpayer $200 a week for full residential care. Sanatoriums like the Betty
Ford charge 10 times that. Jesus saves, and so do you.

Faith-based programmes make no secret of their evangelical agenda. Read the
signs outside their centres: "Drug addiction is not a Disease. It's a sin."
They are hostile to the medical profession (pointy-headed experts), the
social services (bureaucrats) and to AA (a cult). They deny the "disease
concept" of alcoholism and drug addiction. They despise AA's wishy-washy
vapourings about a non-denominational "higher power". For the faith-based
movements, there is only one God to consult. Theirs. You're Jewish, Muslim,
Sikh? Tough.

The faith-based recovery regime is a mixture of boot camp and Bible class.
They permit no medication and rely entirely on what is called the "Jesus
factor". You are not an addict but a sinner. Find your saviour and you will
find sobriety. Guaranteed.

Addiction rates among the young are at epidemic levels. But many liberal
observers believe that the faith-based movement is out of control in Texas.
Historically it fills the vacuum left by the end of the cold war. We beat
the Kremlin; now for the Devil.

Bush (with Olasky at his ear) intends to spread the Texas initiative
nationwide. As president, he vowed, he would establish an "Office of
Faith-Based Action" in Washington. And when he does, God help America.