05/20/04

LC040520

This program is made possible in part by a grant from the City
of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department.

Val Zavala>> Tonight on Life and Times --

Why the White House wants to channel tax dollars to faith-based
charities. Is it good social policy or just savvy politics?

Archbishop Carl Bean>> All of America knows that whomever is in
office or power panders to their constituencies. That's the
truth, and right now we know that the current administration
panders to the religious right.

Val>> And then, another story of faith and how it shaped one
woman's crusade to build a Los Angeles landmark.

All this and more straight ahead on tonight's Life and Times.

Life and Times is made possible through the generous support of
the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality
of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of
medicine, health, science and education.

Val>> America has been built on the tradition of separation of
church and state, but the line gets a little blurry when it
comes to religious charities. The federal government has been
supporting church-based charities for decades, but now President
Bush wants to expand the practice even further. The idea is to
help faith-based charities do some of the social work that
otherwise falls on the government, but how many tax dollars are
we prepared to commit to these organizations? As NewsHour
correspondent, Jeffrey Kaye, reports, the White House isn't even
sure how much it's spending now.

Jeffrey Kaye>> At first glance, it looked like any other trade
show at the Los Angeles Convention Center. In fact, this
gathering in early March was a vivid demonstration of the Bush
administration's faith-based initiative. The eleventh White
House conference in as many cities aimed at spreading the word
that federal agencies are prepared to help more religious
charities get more government funding. The president came to
emphasize the point.

George W. Bush>> "And the government's got resources. We spend
a lot of money on social welfare programs. So what I'm here to
talk to you about today is how to make sure that you have a
chance to access that money. You can access that money without
losing your mission."

Jeffrey Kaye>> Since his first week in office, the president
has made his faith-based initiative a hallmark of his
administration. Seven federal agencies have new centers to
assist religious charities obtain funding.

>> "We have a litany of information."

Jeffrey Kaye>> But three years into the initiative, the Bush
administration has provided no detailed accounting of how much
it's giving to faith-based groups directly or indirectly. Even
the man in charge of the program, Jim Towey, head of the White
House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives which was
established by President Bush, says it's impossible to know.

Jim Towey>> You never can tell how much money is going to
faith-based groups because so much of the money, social service
federal dollars, goes out to organizations through the state and
local communities that don't track it. I could say safely that
it's billions of dollars a year.

Jeffrey Kaye>> The president has pledge to spread funding to
small neighborhood organizations, but the bulk of federal
support to faith-based groups still goes to the large religious
charities as it has for years. To groups such as Fame
Renaissance, the nonprofit arm of the First African Methodist
Episcopal Church, Los Angeles's old black congregation. Fame is
as much a social service agency as it is a church. It's
received federal funds for low-income housing since the Reagan
administration. Today most of its budget of $13 million dollars
a year comes from the government.

>> "They are now hosting our internet site."

Jeffrey Kaye>> Fame runs a program for start-up businesses. It
dispenses transit vouchers and it helps the unemployed find
jobs, among other programs. The federal government has long
supported social service programs of black churches. Other
long-time national faith-based groups have also received federal
funds for decades. The Salvation Army receives twenty percent
of its budget from Washington. Sixty percent of the funding for
Catholic Charities U.S.A., a nonprofit arm of the Catholic
Church, comes from the federal government.

While large organizations still account for the lion's share of
faith-based funding, the Bush administration is slowly awarding
grants to smaller groups, such as the Los Angeles Street
Mission, an evangelical organization which feeds and houses
homeless people in downtown Los Angeles. Alex Huang is a staff
member. He preaches, he says, on his own time before going into
the office where he works as a grant writer for the
organization. He receives a stipend and expenses as a member of
the federally-funded AmeriCorps*VISTA program.

Alex Huang>> I would like to be able to receive the funding
from whatever is available from the federal government actually
to be able to allow this free mission to expand and grow more as
a recovery center.

Jeffrey Kaye>> But some churches believe that, no matter how
skillful their grant-writing, they'll get little assistance from
the Bush administration because of who they are and who they
help. Archbishop Carl Bean's church has had its federal funding
cut. The Unity Fellowship Church runs the Minority Aids
Project. In its fight against HIV, the organization emphasizes
frank talk about sex and the distribution of condoms to the gay,
bisexual and transgender communities. Bean believes such work
offends the conservative sensibilities of the Bush
administration.

Archbishop Carl Bean>> The truth is, all of America knows that
whomever is in office or power panders to their constituencies.
That's the truth, and right now we know that the current
administration panders to the religious right. That is a big
part of their power base. That's the truth. It's no secret.

Jim Towey>> It's not true. I've heard the same allegations.
I've watched the politics swirl around the faith-based
initiative from the time I took this job two years ago. I've
not seen any indication whatsoever that there's an effort now to
discriminate against some certain sector of providers. There
may be a change in providers and hopefully it will be because
we're focusing on who's the most effective ones and starting to
look at results.

Jeffrey Kaye>> Mindful of criticism that the faith-based
initiative could erode the wall between church and state,
federal agencies caution religious groups applying for grants
about the do's and don'ts. President Bush spelled it out.

George W. Bush>> "There are some rules. You can't use federal
money to proselytize. We want to make sure the church and the
state stay separate, but you can use federal money to help a
person quit drinking. If you're a faith-based organization, you
can't say only Methodists allowed. You know, you can say all
drunks are welcome (laughter)."

Jeffrey Kaye>> But some smaller groups say federal assistance
does help them fulfill their religious mission. The Sol del Via
Community Center north of Los Angeles has received $63,000 in
federal funds. The money has allowed the center to buy music
and computer equipment for an after-school program and to hire
an architect for a new building. Lessons take place at a church
campus. Pastor Domingo Mota, who runs the center, says the
social services are provided without religious obligations, but
he does hope a message gets through.

Pastor Domingo Mota>> It might take two to three years before
someone comes to Christ. They might receive services and never
come to Christ.

Jeffrey Kaye>> Do you feel that, just by being here and having
a program here, that is an opportunity to, in your words, bring
people to Christ?

Pastor Domingo Mota>> Absolutely. The most beautiful thing
that I here from people is that they say, when I walk in here, I
feel like this is a community. When I walk in here, I sense
love. What else can I ask for? I know the love of Christ is
here. Although we are a developing structure, the most
important thing here is that we develop the spirit of family and
community. Through that, in time people will come to know Him.

Jeffrey Kaye>> That thin line between church recruitment and
social services bothers secular organizations such as Americans
United for Separation of Church and State. They worry that
government funding of faith-based groups will lead to taxpayer
support of religious ministries. Some clergy have also
expressed concern about the faith-based initiative. The
Reverend Kathy Cooper-Ledesma is Associate Director of the
California Council of Churches, a Protestant group. She doesn't
want to see faith-based groups replacing government programs.

Reverend Kathy Cooper-Ledesma>> We're concerned about an
abdication of the responsibility of the federal government to
maintain the safety net because the primary responsibility for
maintaining the safety net for people who are poor in this
country is the federal government. As the federal funding stays
static, the reality is that people will not have a place to go
if funding is cut to faith-based organizations and the federal
government has abdicated their responsibility.

Jim Towey>> I think the focus should be on who's the most
effective provider. When you look at results and not religion,
not whether the organization believes in God or not, but whether
their program works, that's how the decision should be made.

Jeffrey Kaye>> There has been little research comparing the
effectiveness of religious and secular social service programs.
The few studies that have been done are inconclusive.

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Val>> When Brown vs. Board of Education desegregated America's
schools, the Supreme Court could not have imagined that fifty
years later many of our schools are still predominantly
minority. But perhaps just as important, the quality of
education is still sadly unequal.

We came to Manual Arts High School in South Central Los Angeles
where only nine percent of the students are eligible for
California state colleges. In other words, ninety-one percent
of the students here do not have the required courses that even
allow them to apply to state colleges. That's why fifty
students here and at five other inner city high schools marched
through the halls for the fiftieth anniversary of the Supreme
Court case, Brown vs. Board of Education.

>> "Fifty years ago, Brown vs. Board of Education made it
illegal for us to be denied an equal education, but yet we're
still separate and still unequal. So half a century later, high
school students all over South Los Angeles are being forced into
low-wage labor, the penitentiary system or even the military."

Val>> I talked with organizers, Katynja Udengwu from Community
Coalition, and Julio Daniel, a junior at Manual Arts High
School. You are planning to present a resolution demanding
certain reforms, in a sense, in your education. Tell us what
you are asking for, Julio.

Julio Daniel>> One of our main goals is to get all students in
South Los Angeles their A through G classes because sixty
percent of the students are dropping out because of the --

Val>> -- now tell us what A through G is because a lot of
people won't understand that.

Julio Daniel>> A through G are the classes required by
universities for admission, like A is four years of math, B is
four years of science and so on.

Val>> You cannot go to college without those classes?

Julio Daniel>> Right. Without those requirements met, a
university will not accept your application. Another one of our
goals is more resources. We need more books. If you go inside
the school and look at the books, the books are out of date,
torn apart. They're just in really bad condition and that's
unfortunate that these black and brown schools have to have
these conditions.

Val>> And Katynja, this is not the only school where this
resolution is being pushed?

Katynja Udengwu>> No. We're doing this at five South Los
Angeles high schools. This one's at Manual Arts. We're also at
Fremont. We're at Washington Prep. We're endorsing Crenshaw
high schools because the concerns and conditions are the same in
all South Los Angeles high schools. It's really exciting, you
know, for the community to see, for the world to see, that
students do care about their futures and they're involved in
making these changes. And then that they're in partnership with
the principals, with the teachers, with the parents to make
these concrete changes that we want to see occur.

>> "What we're going to do right now is read the resolution:
Resolve as Principal of Manual Arts High School, I support
statewide universal access A through G college preparatory
classes, Resolve that I pledge to continue working with Manual
Arts Youth and Power Through Action to develop policies and
progress to improve education and opportunities."

Julio Daniel>> People don't believe that the students out here
in South Los Angeles are going to pass the classes, so they
figure let's just give them vocational classes, let's give them
auto shop, floor tiling, cosmetics because they're not going to
pass the A through G classes. It's the stereotype of what
people have about students, black and brown students primarily.

Katynja Udengwu>> We know as a whole in California that there
is a budget crisis, but we're saying that, regardless of the
crisis, to prioritize education and education spending
specifically in the most under-served communities such as South
Los Angeles. What we are saying is that, you know, spending for
South Los Angeles is being relegated to prisons versus the
courses that students need to be eligible to go on to four-year
universities. Kids are being prepared for low-wage labor, for
prison, and we want them in turn to be prepared to go to college
and have the careers that they deserve.

Val>> Now, Julio, you actually were bused for a while to a
magnet school. It was a better school, but you chose not to be
bused, to come to this school in your own neighborhood, even
though it doesn't have as many resources and classes and so
forth aren't as good, but you're still here. Why is that?

Julio Daniel>> Because it's part of a larger commitment towards
what I believe there should be about education. All my life, I
have been bused out to schools outside of my community and I
finally decided that I shouldn't have to be taken outside of my
community by a bus to receive the education that I need. It
should be right here in my community. So it was a level of
commitment to those ideals.

Val>> So what do you hope will come from today's action and
presentation of the resolution? Not just here, but at the other
schools as well. What do you want to result from this?

Julio Daniel>> Well, we want to change one of our major
problems that students aren't receiving the A through G classes.
By getting the principal to commit to these resolutions, since
it's being done publicly, it will put more pressure on the
principal to do more work for getting these students the A
through G classes and getting them on a college prep track.

>> "On all of these issues here, I think that here at Manual --
I've been here seven years and I think we've made a lot of
progress in these areas. I'm delighted to sign this resolution
showing my commitment to work with you to continue to make
progress on these issues and make Manual Arts High School a
great school. Thank you."

Katynja Udengwu>> We want to really -- it's about at this time
creating an urgency and then, you know, re-prioritizing or
extracting resources and putting them where students want them
to go. It's about dialogue, so we are creating this dialogue
with students, with teachers, with the principal and with the
community to address these concerns. It's a very fitting time,
fifty years after Brown vs. Board of Education, because we're
saying fifty years later, we don't want to still be separate.
We don't want to still be unequal. We want to see that progress
that, you know, the Supreme Court envisioned fifty years ago
today.

Val>> Katynja, Julio, thank you very much. Very, very nice
meeting you.

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Val>> It exists literally in the shadow of the Hollywood Bowl.
It's been like that since day one. The Ford Amphitheatre may
not be as famous as the Bowl, but this Los Angeles landmark has
a history that is just as fascinating. In fact, the story got
more interesting as we started digging deeper into why the
amphitheatre was built in the first place and how it's linked to
a cross on a hill overlooking Hollywood. Vicki Curry has our
report.

Vicki Curry>> It's tucked away in the hills of the Cahuenga
Pass, a leap across the freeway from a more famous neighbor, the
Hollywood Bowl. But on the road less traveled lies a true Los
Angeles landmark, the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre.

David Pier>> And when people first walk into this space and see
it all lit up, they can't believe it because a lot of people
have never been here before, so when they find out what's here,
it's really kind of a little treasure chest.

Vicki Curry>> The Ford is an outdoor amphitheatre similar to
the Hollywood Bowl. Audiences can picnic while enjoying
performances under the stars. And the two have something else
in common, a woman named Christine Wetherill Stevenson, who
played a key role in the creation of both venues.

[Film Clip]

Vicki Curry>> In 1919, Stevenson helped purchase the land
that's now home to the Hollywood Bowl. She was heiress to the
Pittsburgh Paint fortune, but it was her spirituality that
inspired her to build an outdoor theatre, one worthy of staging
great productions with religious themes.

David Pier>> I think the original idea was to have a whole
series of religious plays about different major religious
leaders of the world.

Vicki Curry>> But Stevenson's plans provoked a dispute with her
partners at the Bowl, so she started looking for another piece
of land for her theatre. She found it just across the canyon
and that was the beginning of the Ford, which was then called
The Pilgrimage Theatre.

Laura Zucker>> She'd written a play called "The Pilgrimage
Play" and she wanted a place to perform it. She recognized that
this was a very spiritual special place in Los Angeles.

Vicki Curry>> Before the Hollywood Bowl even had a stage, "The
Pilgrimage Play" premiered June 27, 1920.

Laura Zucker>> Well, "The Pilgrimage Play" was about the life
of Jesus, which is what informed the architecture, the
crenellated towers, and the kind of Old Jerusalem look to the
Ford.

Vicki Curry>> But Stevenson never realized her dream to stage
other religious plays. She died unexpectedly in 1922. In her
memory, friends installed a cross on the hill next to the
theatre. It's still there, having endured fires, storms and
criticism over the years. And down below, another survivor: the
amphitheatre that was born out of her spiritual passion.

Laura Zucker>> The theatre was made of wood and it burned down
in 1929 and it was rebuilt by the WPA in poured concrete in
1931, and this is the structure that pretty much you see here
today.

Vicki Curry>> "The Pilgrimage Play" which had been staged every
summer during the 1920's returned with the new theatre in 1931
and continued its annual run.

Laura Zucker>> There was a brief interruption during World War
II when the theatre was actually used to billet soldiers.

Vicki Curry>> During those war years, the theatre's private
operators deeded it to Los Angeles County and that change from
private to public ownership led to the eventual demise of "The
Pilgrimage Play".

Laura Zucker>> And in 1964, a lawsuit was brought to stop "The
Pilgrimage Play" as being too religious in nature and that was
the end of "The Pilgrimage Play" and the beginning of the kind
of modern life of the theatre.

Vicki Curry>> In 1976, Los Angeles County Supervisor Ed
Edelman, renamed the theatre for his predecessor.

Laura Zucker>> Jonathan Ford was a real leader in establishing
the county's vision around arts and culture for our region. He
not only cared about this theatre, but he was instrumental in
the creation of the Music Center.

Vicki Curry>> By the early 1990's, the old theatre had started
to fall apart, so the County Arts Commission decided to renovate
the structure and revitalize it with new programming.

Laura Zucker>> We looked at the panoply of presenting
organizations in Los Angeles and it was clear that what was
really missing was a place that presented Los Angeles-based arts
organizations that didn't have an opportunity to work in a
theatre this size, 1200 seats. So the Ford is really a
partnership program with more than thirty-five local arts
organizations each year presenting local, national and sometimes
international artists.

David Pier>> I think one of our primary goals is to really
support the local Los Angeles-based arts organizations, help
them increase their visibility and build their audiences, and
then also provide a venue of this size that a lot of the arts
organizations might otherwise not be able to afford to go into
or might not have the experience working in this size of space.
We actually kind of help each of the different groups to learn
how to produce in this size of venue and attract the large
crowds.

[Film Clip]

Vicki Curry>> Today the Ford's partnership program acts as an
incubator for local arts groups.

David Pier>> We actually invite arts organizations, actually
community organizations, from throughout Los Angeles County to
apply to the Ford and make proposals for different projects. We
certainly look for artistic excellence, but we also look at the
history of the organization and what their producing history is,
if they're ready to take this step and work in this size of a
venue.

We provide a lot of technical assistance, so we help the groups
with their marketing activities. We help them learn how to do
the production side of things. We provide a very high quality
sound system, very nice lighting equipment. We provide
different promotional things. We have groups that perform here
and eventually become national touring groups. We have
producers here that maybe they started on kind of a relatively
small local scale and then they start bringing international
artists in.

[Film Clip]

Vicki Curry>> The program also helps the groups by pooling
their resources. Their mailing lists are shared so the artists
can reach more people and audiences can learn about different
performances.

David Pier>> We work actively to make both what's on the stage
at the Ford representative of the cross-section of Los Angeles
and also we really like to see that diversity in our audience.
I think it's one of the fun things when you go to the Ford and
you see the audiences here and you realize that this really is a
cross-section of Los Angeles.

[Film Clip]

David Pier>> You get a little bit of everything here
(laughter), everything from dance, we have theatre here, we have
music, all different kinds of concerts, jazz, classical music,
chamber music that has a special history here at the Ford. We
also have a number of different film festivals here each summer.
We have a full-size movie screen and 35mm projectors.

[Film Clip]

Vicki Curry>> Many of the people who've been coming here for
years, audiences and artists alike, feel there's no other place
quite like the Ford.

Laura Zucker>> It's just amazing the people who want to perform
here. What we hear continually from artists is that they feel a
special connection with the audience here that they just don't
get in other venues.

[Film Clip]

Vicki Curry>> Much has changed since Christine Wetherill
Stevenson built her outdoor theatre in the Hollywood hills, but
one thing hasn't, and that's the joy of visiting this unique
place. It's just as real now as it was eighty years ago.

David Pier>> When you come inside the theatre itself, it's
really like entering a different world. You do not feel like
you're in the middle of Los Angeles. It's a little oasis here
and I think it's one of the reasons people really like coming to
the Ford.

Val>> Each year, the Ford Amphitheatre has a variety of events
under the stars and you can tap into their schedule by logging
on to their website at fordamphitheatre.org. And that's our
program. I'm Val Zavala. For everyone at Life and Times,
thanks for watching. We'll see you next time.

Life and Times was made possible through the generous support of
the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality
of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of
medicine, health, science and education.

This program was made possible in part by a grant from the City
of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department.

Val>> Next time on Life and Times, paying a premium to drive
primetime. That's exactly what might happen to California
truckers.

>> Ultimately, we really have no choice. To do nothing is not
a choice. We cannot continue to put trucks on freeways at peak
hours and let them do ten miles per hour. It makes no sense.

Val>> That's next time on Life and Times.