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Monday, September 09, 1996     Page:

Religion may be a key to solving welfare problem
   
Anyone who says “jobs!” are the key to welfare reform must come to terms
with the stark Families for a Better Life experience in Chicago: A promise of
    $3 million, a pledge to move 100 families off of welfare, the spending of
$1.3
   
million over two years ..But only five families who have completed the
program, as of today. That’s a outlay of more than a quarter of a million
dollars per family.
   
And the future of the program, the creation of TV entertainer Oprah
Winfrey, is in serious doubt.
   
Clearly, something other than a few weeks of training or a new Civilian
Conservation Corps will be needed to break the cycle of poverty, conservatives
and liberals should agree.
   
No one knows for sure what that something will be. But it probably will,
and probably should, involve religion, for reasons that are explained below.
   
The Families for a Better Life experience is worth reviewing. Chicago
Tribune columnist Clarence Page recounted the program’s failure in his
syndicated column, which was published in this newspaper Sunday. His sadness
and disappointment came through in every word.
   
A review of the original Chicago Tribune story that broke the news shows
why:
   
“In September 1994, the most famous woman in Chicago decided to tackle one
of the country’s most deep-rooted problems,” the story reported.
   
“Standing before a clump of television cameras, media mogul Oprah Winfrey
single-handedly took on poverty, saying she would finance a program to move
100 families out of public housing, off public aid and into better lives …
   
“But almost two years and $1.3 million later, only five families have
completed the program and the project itself is on hold.”
   
What went wrong?
   
The Tribune news story’s conclusion:
   
“At its most basic, the lesson of Families for a Better Life may be that
the lives of the poor are so chaotic and infused with a `mind frame of
entitlement’ that they defy even programs specifically designed to overcome
these obstacles.”
   
The Tribune isn’t the only newspaper coming to that conclusion — and in
news stories, not editorial columns. “Welfare-to-Work Plans Show Success is
Difficult to Achieve,” read the headline over a front page New York Times
story last week.
   
The story described a number of jobs and training programs that had won
very few victories despite very generous and well-meaning efforts. The article
summed up the theme this way:
   
“Overcoming years of dependency on open-ended entitlement programs is
daunting, those who administer welfare-to-work efforts say.
   
“Employers express satisfaction with new employees who show initiative and
a willingness to learn … (But) business people are frustrated by many
welfare veterans. Many among those hired, while the most qualified of those
screened, have problems that include absenteeism, lack of discipline about
work hours, poor reading and communications skills, and open resentment when
given direction. And the current programs have not even reached people on
welfare who have more serious problems, like alcohol and drug abuse or low
intelligence.”
   
As mentioned yesterday in this space, jobs aren’t the key to welfare
reform. Responsibility is: How can society counteract those dependency
problems, and encourage more people on welfare to take responsibility for
themselves?
   
That’s where religion may come in.
   
No other force in human life transforms behavior the way religion does. For
thousands of years, religions have inspired dramatic changes in the way people
live. Their force is recognized in countless ways, from the way members of
Alcoholics Anonymous humbly turn themselves over to a “higher power” to the
way Pope John Paul II helped fuel the dissent that led to the breakup of the
Soviet Union.
   
That transformational force could help at least some people on welfare
develop the personal responsibility they’ll need.
   
Any charity risks making people dependent on its aid. Government charity,
as Oprah Winfrey and others now know, instilled that soul-breaking sense of
dependency in people by the thousands.
   
But religion can transcend that fundamental trade-off. Religious-based
charities typically ask for something in return from those they help. They
don’t give something for nothing. They give something for something: A
Catholic homeless shelter in Chicago, for example, that insists its residents
stay clean, sober and drug-free.
   
This debate has moved far beyond the seminary walls. U.S. News and World
Report devotes its current cover story, “The Faith Factor,” to the subject.
Americans now are considering a range of policies that would give religion a
bigger role in solving social problems. And as the Families for a Better Life
experience in Chicago shows, that may not be a bad thing.