Artificial-Soul.net

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Charitable choice came to life in a haphazard way. In early 1995, Carl Esbeck, a professor at the University of Missouri Law School, was preparing for a presentation on the regulation of religious organizations that receive government assistance. At the time, the only faith-based entities that were eligible for federal funding were those with arm’s-length religious affiliations, such as Catholic Charities and the Salvation Army. Such groups were prohibited from delivering religious messages and could not discriminate in the hiring of staff. Esbeck thought that eligibility should be expanded to include all faith-based providers, even those that deliver religious messages in their social programs. To make this point, he drafted legislation outlining federal guidelines that could make such an expansion possible. He passed the draft to a former student who was working for Sen. John Ashcroft, R-Mo. Ashcroft liked it and, after a few revisions, included it in legislation he introduced in the Senate that …