LDS Church is “unlikely to participate in Obama’s faith-based initiatives

As with the Bush administration, the LDS Church won’t be participating in Pres. Obama’s faith-based initiatives.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has operated an “effective welfare and humanitarian program for more than 60 years without government funding,” spokesman Scott Trotter said Wednesday, signaling the church also is unlikely ever to accept federal money under Obama’s initiatives.

That stance continues the approach taken by the church in 2001, when President Bush created the first faith-based initiative.

“We like to do [our welfare projects] on our own,” the late President Gordon B. Hinckley said at the time. “Once the government is involved, regulations follow.”

Trotter said Mormon leaders do not object to the government trying to “strengthen the efforts of other churches in welfare and social services.”

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