Isle priest confers
in D.C. on Bush plan

A meeting involving various
religions looks at substance
abuse programs

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By Mary Adamski
madamski@starbulletin.com

"Faith-based initiative" is a buzzword in Washington, D.C., as Bush's proposal to provide federal money for church-sponsored social programs works its way through congressional hearings.

An Episcopal priest from Hawaii, the Rev. Alison Dingley, had the chance to give the government her opinion at a July conference of 135 representatives from different religions.

The subject of the particular "national focus group" was substance abuse programs, and the advice of the grass-roots consultants was that the disciplines of medicine and psychology should prevail whether a program is run by a church or a secular social service agency.

"There are standard practices, and they need to demonstrate they are able to do that," said Dingley, who has several years' experience in planning and administering substance abuse programs in state and private agencies. She was nominated by the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Division of the state Department of Health to attend the Washington meeting.

Dingley was impressed by the "spectrum of American religious institutions represented in the national focus group. There were Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, mainline Protestants, evangelical Protestants, native Americans and Alaskan natives. Just being in that diversity was interesting." They were asked to identify barriers to funding faith-based programs, and ways to overcome the barriers.

The meeting, convened by the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, is one of several under way in the federal bureaucracy. Elizabeth Seals, Bush-appointed director for faith-based and community initiatives in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, told the delegates that similar coordinators are in the federal departments of Education, Justice, and Housing and Urban Development.

Political discussion about federal funding of faith-based programs swirls around support by conservative Christians and opposition by people who fear religious beliefs will be imposed on program participants.

Those concerns were expressed at the focus group meeting, Dingley said. "Several people from the religious right blasted" the director of the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, H. Westley Clark, when he spoke of requiring substance abuse counselors to be certified, as in major secular programs.

"It was expressed that being religious was enough credentials and that God heals them," Dingley said. "The conference view was 'just like other programs' to the question of credentials. And 'just like other programs,' they should have to show they have community support sustainability."

Conferees concluded church programs are going to face the same financial hurdle as secular programs, she said. "Technical assistance, quality staff, family-friendly treatment, facilities all cost money. With no new money -- they're not talking about increasing funding, and substance abuse programs are underresourced compared to other treatment already.

"What we thought differed from what the designers of faith-based initiative were expecting," she said.

Dingley said she will recommend that the state bring together different religions to explore how they may be able to support treatment services.

Dingley, now interim rector at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Wahiawa, was shelter manager at the Institute for Human Services from 1991 to 1993. She was also director of outpatient services in a Hawaii Paroling Authority substance abuse program and a program specialist with the state Department of Public Safety. She served on the advisory committee of the state Alcohol and Drug Abuse Division, which administers government funding to community programs.

The idea of "faith-based initiatives" in the field is not new. The "12-Step" program that is the structure of Alcoholics Anonymous and other recovery programs was based in the Anglican Church's Oxford movement. In Hawaii the Salvation Army is a major provider of substance abuse rehabilitation programs.

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