Pat Robertson, head of the Christian Coalition, voiced concern over Bush’s faith-based initiative.
“This thing could be a real Pandora’s box,” Robertson said on the Feb. 20 broadcast of the “700 Club.” “What seems to be such a great initiative can rise up to bite the organizations as well as the federal government. And I’m a little concerned about it, frankly.”
Robertson expressed reservations over government funding of minority religious groups like the Unification Church, Hare Krishnas and the Church of Scientology.
“You know I hate to find myself on the side of the Anti-Defamation League and others, but this . . . gets to be a real problem,” said Robertson. “The Moonies have been proscribed, if I can use that, for brainwashing techniques, sleep deprivation and all the rest of it that goes along with their unusual proselytizing.”
He criticized the Hare Krishnas for doing “much the same thing” and the Church of Scientology for its “incredible campaign against the IRS.”
“In voicing his concerns,” wrote Thomas Edsall in the Washington Post, “Robertson became the most prominent conservative to question the initiative.”
