Church Business - Interfaith Delegation Unites to Help Katrina Evacuees in Baton Rouge

Church Business - Interfaith Delegation Unites to Help Katrina Evacuees in Baton Rouge: "On Oct. 21, The Interfaith Alliance led a diverse group of religious leaders representing America's wide spectrum of faiths on an investigative tour of the Katrina relief efforts in Baton Rouge, La.

Following the tour, members of the delegation -- Christian, Jewish, Sikh, Buddhist and other religious and community leaders -- bore witness, calling on policymakers to respond more effectively and committing their own organizations and denominations to provide additional resources to directly help the evacuees, both now and in the months and years ahead.

The delegation also focued its attention on attacks to religious liberties that have occurred -- and on the ongoing threats to American's religious liberties posed by various policies implemented and being considered -- in the wake of the hurricanes.

'The Interfaith Alliance and members of the Interfaith Delegation applaud the vital, compassionate job that religious and secular social service programs are doing to help the evacuees,' said the Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy, president of The Interfaith Alliance. 'We also want to alert Americans to the dangers inherent in the Bush administration's manipulation of the Katrina aftermath as it seeks to circumvent the U. S. Constitution with government funding of religion, including reimbursing houses of worship for disaster relief and using public funds to rebuild parochial schools and other religious institutions as announced by the White House yesterday."