Use of Faith-Based Organizations for US Aid?

In a February 27 Op-Ed piece in the NY Times, Nicholas Kristof suggests that the US should continue funneling aid to countries through faith based organizations like World Vision. Kristof points to the increased involvement of US based faith organizations in distributing all types of aid to other countries. And, he points to the massive numbers of people already in place through World Vision.

He ends his piece with these words:

Some liberals are pushing to end the longtime practice (it’s a myth that this started with President George W. Bush) of channeling American aid through faith-based organizations. That change would be a catastrophe. In Haiti, more than half of food distributions go through religious groups like World Vision that have indispensable networks on the ground. We mustn’t make Haitians the casualties in our cultural wars.

A root problem is a liberal snobbishness toward faith-based organizations. Those doing the sneering typically give away far less money than evangelicals. They’re also less likely to spend vacations volunteering at, say, a school or a clinic in Rwanda.

If secular liberals can give up some of their snootiness, and if evangelicals can retire some of their sanctimony, then we all might succeed together in making greater progress against common enemies of humanity, like illiteracy, human trafficking and maternal mortality.

That leads me to wonder:
- What do you think about using evangeical Christan or Catholic groups to distribute US aid?
- Would your opinion change if the distributing groups were the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints or the Scientologists?
- Is there a potential problem with the groups using this aid money to gain converts or do you think that might be a problem?