Will Religious Protections Remain in our Nation’s Substance Abuse and Mental Health Systems?
I don’t usually write about pending legislation, but this has real impact on “faith based” and community ministry.
We need to pay attention to the effort to strip the Charitable Choice language out of the bill that pays for Substance Abuse and Mental Health in our nation. Charitable choice protects churches and faith based ministries and was landmark legislation first signed by President Clinton. There are lots of folks in the federal government that want this stripped out, but to think that we can restore the addicted and help with mental illness without church help is not clear thinking. Respecting religious institutions who deliver a substantial amount of this nations recovery is not optional. Think about all the Celebrate Recovery and Teen Challenge groups serving across this nation! Secular help groups have made quite a bit of progress in respecting the importance of faith in recovery. This is a step back and your communication with your congressman and senator could really help. You simply need to ask them to make sure that the SAMHSA Reauthorization Bill retains Charitable Choice.
If you care about this simply sent an email.
Senate emails go here.