AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
For many people of faith, caring for their neighbor is an important religious practice. But who is my neighbor? It's a question as old as the Bible. And one being asked again as the Trump administration challenges faith-based groups' work with immigrants and refugees. NPR religion correspondent Jason DeRose has been looking into this. Hi, Jason.
JASON DEROSE, BYLINE: Hello.
RASCOE: So first, let's step back. Like, what's different about the way this administration is talking about faith-based work?
DEROSE: Well, for many years, Republicans, along with Democrats, have promoted the idea that faith groups were well situated to do certain kinds of charitable work. They had close ties to communities and support systems needed to do things like resettle refugees or help, say, teach English to immigrants. This has been framed religiously as caring for the stranger, which is a biblical imperative. You know, in the story of the Good Samaritan, Jesus famously makes the point that a neighbor is someone who shows mercy to a stranger in need. But something Vice President JD Vance said recently caught my ear because it represents a different approach. Here he is talking on Fox News.
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VICE PRESIDENT JD VANCE: There's this old-school - and I think it's a very Christian concept, by the way - that you love your family, and then you love your neighbor, and then you love your community, and then you love your fellow citizens in your own country. And then after that, you can focus and prioritize the rest of the world.
DEROSE: So what Vance is describing is less caring for the stranger and more caring for those you already know. While he describes it as Christian, many religious leaders have said it isn't especially biblical.
RASCOE: And Elon Musk, an adviser to President Donald Trump, called the charity work of one faith group illegal. What's going on there?
DEROSE: Well, it started when retired Army General Michael Flynn posted on social media a list of Lutheran groups that receive federal money to carry out various social service activities. Flynn called this money laundering, which is a federal crime. Then Elon Musk re posted the message, adding, without evidence, that these payments were illegal. It's important to say here, Ayesha, that these groups have been working with the government for decades and have never been charged with misusing funds. Here's what presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Elizabeth Eaton, had to say.
ELIZABETH EATON: These organizations have done the same work for 85 years in serving legally admitted refugees and immigrants. As a church, we follow the Eighth Commandment for the Scriptures, which states, you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
DEROSE: And Bishop Eaton holds that the stranger should be considered a neighbor and cared for.
RASCOE: What have the administration's actions meant for faith groups that work with refugees?
DEROSE: Well, the suspension of the refugee resettlement program has meant that organizations that do this work, most of which are faith-based, are now furloughing employees. As for the refugees who are already here, the Trump administration says it won't keep its financial commitment to pay for 90 days of rent, food and other basic needs. So faith-based groups that resettle refugees, such as World Relief and Church World Service, are scrambling to raise millions of dollars to care for refugees anyway.
RASCOE: Where did the notion of government helping faith-based charities do their work come from?
DEROSE: Well, faith-based groups that run official charities have long been eligible to apply for government funds to carry out all sorts of work, including feeding poor people and resettling refugees, as long as they didn't use the money to proselytize. Then during the presidency of George W. Bush, he gave that idea a big boost when he created an office in the White House in 2001 to make it easier for faith groups to get government funds to carry out this work.
RASCOE: I do remember that, Faith-Based and Community Initiatives under George W. Bush. Getting back to that biblical idea of who is our neighbor, how might that question continue to affect the mission of these groups?
DEROSE: Well, now, there's always going to be some tension between the government's way of wanting to run a program and the way a faith-based group wants to run it because they have different priorities - for instance, financial efficiency versus biblical mandate. Stanley Carlson-Thies worked with that White House office I mentioned during both the George W. Bush and Obama administrations. He's now with the Center for Public Justice. Here's what he says about just shutting down programs.
STANLEY CARLSON-THIES: I think we have to be very careful, though, in our imperfect world, to think that I can't assist my neighbor until all these other things are perfect, partly because they're never going to be perfect. When Jesus talked about loving our neighbor, he didn't say, yeah, go ahead and do that once your family has a million dollars in the bank.
DEROSE: And, Ayesha, a question that I'll be keeping my eye on is how people of faith who've supported Donald Trump respond to these policies, since it does represent a significant shift in what had been long-standing Republican support for faith-based groups getting this kind of funds to care for their neighbors.
RASCOE: That's NPR's Jason DeRose. Thank you so much.
DEROSE: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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