WHITE HOUSE WATCH: GOVERNMENT IN THE BEDROOM

WASHINGTON - Big Brother is back, peering in your bedroom window.

Unmarried? The Bush administration wants to spend $100 million on ads and
an educational campaign to encourage you to tie the knot. Considering
divorce? The government will try to convince you to stay married. Pregnant?
The Bush administration wants to discourage you from considering an
abortion by providing insurance for your fetus, enabling you to get
prenatal care.

Do you light up a joint every now and then? If you watched the Super Bowl,
you heard the government tell you that you are aiding and abetting
terrorism by supporting domestic marijuana growers.

If you're a teenager, the government is going all-out to convince you to
abstain from sex until you are married.

While the administration understandably is publicly concentrating on war,
building up the military and homeland defense, the fact that a Republican
who wants to live his Christian faith controls the White House is having an
ideological, often hidden effect on dozens of federal programs.

President Bush's new budget is the first that is solely his because most of
last year's budget, presented less than a month after Mr. Bush took office,
was written by aides to President Bill Clinton.

The budget shows that aside from the dramatic amounts of money proposed for
defense and precautions against bioterrorism, the White House is doing what
it can to mold society more to its liking.

Mr. Bush has reinvigorated his drive for faith-based community activism,
proposing to use federal funds to aid church-related volunteer efforts.

His administration is undertaking a vigorous "family formation" campaign to
educate Americans about marriage before they take that step and then how to
stay married through the difficult times.

The administration is also signaling that it intends to be more active than
previous administrations to fight abortion.

For the first time the Justice Department, where Attorney General John
Ashcroft is draping naked female statues representing Justice, is
intervening in a case involving an Ohio law banning a rarely used procedure
called dilation and extraction (dubbed partial-birth abortion by
opponents). When the Ohio law was struck down, Justice lawyers demanded
that a federal appeals court reinstate the law banning the controversial
medical procedure. Doctors who want the freedom to use the procedure argue
that it is sometimes the safest form of abortion for the mother, an
argument upheld by the Supreme Court.

Sept. 11 vastly tempered Mr. Bush's discomfort with "big government,"
because Americans seek reassurance their government is protecting them
abroad and at home. But that tragic day also reinforced the President's
determination to remake America. He wants it kinder, more compassionate,
more giving, and much less sinful.

Grants to states for mothers with out-of-wedlock babies are not going to
rise, according to the Bush budget. The idea is that there will be fewer of
them. The President's budget says: "Teen pregnancy and out-of-wedlock
sexual activity remain a major problem. In 1999, half of all high school
students engaged in sexual activity, including 8 percent before age 13. To
ensure that more children receive the message that abstinence is the best
option for avoiding unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted
diseases, the budget makes a substantial investment in abstinence education."

But the administration also proposes to eliminate bonuses to states for
reducing the number of out-of-wedlock births, arguing there is no evidence
states developed initiatives to reduce such births. The administration
wants to spend $505 million on a Promoting Safe and Stable Families
program, encouraging children to remain with or return to their biological
families.

So far, Americans are embracing Mr. Bush and his philosophy. His remarkable
job approval ratings, over 80 percent, indicate that there is no wellspring
of concern that Mr. Bush is going too far down a road that former President
Clinton refused to take.

At the National Prayer Breakfast this year Mr. Bush indicated he wants
government to guide citizens and promote goodness. He said: "Faith shows us
the reality of good and the reality of evil. Some acts and choices in this
world have eternal consequences."

Ann McFeatters is chief of The Blade's national bureau.