By Brittany Karford
Even though the Federal Emergency Management Agency plans to reimburse religious groups who donated heavily to the hurricane response effort, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will not be taking them up on the offer.
FEMA announced that it will use taxpayer money to reimburse churches and other religious organizations for their generous outpouring to hurricane victims, but many groups say they?ll decline and even question the motives of the action.
The compensation would mark the first large-scale government payments to religious groups for disaster aid and would likewise raise issues on the boundary between church and state and the definition of charity.
?Once I?ve given a charitable donation to someone, I would not expect it back,? said Karla Brandau, director of public affairs for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the North America Southeast region. ?It destroys the feeling of being charitable.?
Brandau helps coordinate one of the largest bishop?s storehouses in the hurricane-stricken area, located in Atlanta, and saw firsthand how the church opened its doors in wake of the hurricanes.
Church officials in Salt Lake City would not release exact figures on just how much LDS donations have totaled, but Brandau hinted at the size of the church?s contribution thus far.
?At least 150 loaded semi-trucks full of supplies,? she said. ?That?s enough to supply three Super Wal-Marts.?
Additionally, the LDS storehouses in Atlanta and Orlando are currently facilitating the distribution of cleaning kits to the Gulf Coast area. Brandau said the kits are $16 to $17 a piece and the church is distributing 40,000 of them ? an endeavor priced at well over $600,000.
?And that?s just one little piece,? Brandau said.
FEMA officials recognize the enormous outreach made by religious entities and volunteer groups across the country.
According to Michael Rieger, public information officer for FEMA?s eighth region, 42 states and the District of Columbia received an emergency declaration to provide funding to state and local governments to help hurricane victims.
The trouble is, using taxpayer funds to reimburse an organization such as the Red Cross is much different than a religious party.
?FEMA says as long as it is definable as community service it is eligible for reimbursement,? Rieger said. ?Faith-based or non faith-based, it?s still service.?
Rieger added that this is not the first time government funds have gone to faith-based groups, either. FEMA has funded private, non-profit organizations for service before, which Rieger said often includes faith-based groups.
?[FEMA] is not crossing the line [between church and state],? he said. ?Is this the largest reimbursement ? yes. It will be the largest amount ever paid to faith-based groups.?
But in comparison to the cost of the entire disaster, reimbursement to these groups could be negligible.
?Considering the amount ? the billions being spent ? if these bills were paid it would be relatively small,? said FEMA Public Affairs Specialist Chuck Kielkopf.
Kielkopf is one of many FEMA officials working directly out of Louisiana, scrambling to get an estimate on just how much relief will cost.
?We just have no arms around it at all,? he said. ?It?s an absolute unknown.?
Moreover, Kielkopf said the terms of reimbursing religious groups could get murky. He said there would have to be some sort of claims process where an organization could present the services they provided and the costs associated.
?Right now there?s no real mechanism to do that either,? he said. ?We?re still at the cutting edge.?
FEMA also has no real sense of what that potential claim population might be.
?Some might not make any claims,? Kielkopf said. ?They consider it their charity and their resources ? they don?t want government money.?
The Utah-Idaho Southern Baptist Convention is one such faith-group, who donated funds and numerous volunteer hours to the operation of Camp Williams, an evacuee center in Utah.
?It?s not something we do for reimbursement,? said Wade Gaylor, disaster relief coordinator for the Utah-Idaho Southern Baptist Convention. ?It?s something we do to help feel the love of Christ.?
Gaylor said most of the donations that funded the means for their volunteer work came from the Red Cross, which does not receive FEMA reimbursement.
?All the services we provide are covered from donations from the American people to our natural disaster fund,? said Marriann Geyer, CEO of the Greater Salt Lake Chapter of the Red Cross. ?But there were clearly donations taken from many, many organizations.?
Geyer directly cited the donations of the Southern Baptist Disaster Relief group as well as the LDS church.
?Everyone played a part,? she said. ?In really ran the gambit.?
Geyer said there were little churches to large-scale operations collecting things, which presents FEMA with another challenge of defining what is reimbursable and what is not.
Kielkopf said any allocation of funds from FEMA to religious entities would be as neutral as possible.
Scott Trotter, spokesman for the LDS church, said the church never expects compensation and will not accept any money from FEMA.
In fact, Trotter said the church pre-stocks five of the regional bishop?s storehouses in the southeastern region each year to prepare for tropical storms.
?We know when its hurricane season down there, and we always want to be prepared,? he said.
