BOB ABERNETHY: Now, a status report on the President's faith-based initiative -- his proposal that would make it easier for religious social service groups to get Federal money, if they want it. At first, the idea seemed to many like apple pie or motherhood -- who could object? But it turned out a lot of people could, and did, on both the right and left. So where does all that criticism leave the original idea? Kim Lawton has an update.

KIM LAWTON: It's food pantry day at Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Falls Church, Virginia. Twice a month, the mosque distributes food and other items to needy families. The project is part of a mosque-funded vision to address the social needs of the community. Leaders would like to expand their efforts, but resources are limited. The possibility of getting support through President Bush's faith-based initiative is intriguing.

MS. MONA MALIK (Dar al-Hijrah social worker): We are definitely watching very closely as this evolves and hope that there is an avenue where we can intervene and participate.

LAWTON: As the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives gets up and running, religious groups across the spectrum are all watching closely; some with anticipation, others with serious trepidation. Few issues in the new Bush administration have provoked more controversyÉor confusion.

MARVIN OLASKY (Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty): Only the blindest optimist in the world would think that this could go through without having lots of discussion and debate and sometimes argument.

LAWTON: President Bush set it all in motion on January 29, when he signed an executive order establishing the new White House office, headed by University of Pennsylvania professor John DiIulio.

President GEORGE W. BUSH: When we see social needs in America, my administration will look first to faith-based programs and community groups, which have proven their power to save and change lives.

LAWTON: There are several goals. First, special offices are being set up in five departmental agencies. They will audit policies and regulations that may be keeping faith-based groups from participating in the government's provision of social services. Those audits have to be completed by the end of July.

JOHN DIIULIO (Faith-Based Initiative): We must do away with the perverse discriminatory governmental rules and regulations that inhibit rather than empower, that frustrate rather than foster effective street-level responses to social problems.

LAWTON: A second goal is to identify and expand model public-private partnerships. The administration also wants to boost charitable giving and volunteerism. President Bush has proposed income tax changes that would allow non-itemizers to deduct their charitable contributions.

The firestorm of controversy has centered around the proposal to widen access to government funding of religious social services, through expansion of a federal program known as Charitable Choice.

That idea has set off an uproar.

BARRY LYNN (Americans United for Separation of Church and State). Never in American history has the federal government undertaken such a dangerous and unprecedented effort to commingle church and state.

LAWTON: Charitable Choice was signed into law in 1996 by President Bill Clinton as part of Welfare Reform. Under the law, religious social service providers could apply for grants in a few federal programs on the same basis as secular providers. And within certain restrictions, they wouldn't have to compromise their religious identity.

Some religious leaders were outraged to learn the Bush administration wasn't proposing any new money, just wider access to more federal programs.

RABBI JEROME EPSTEIN (United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism): Many people assume that there is going to be a bigger pie. What I understand this to be is a redistribution of the already too small pie.

LAWTON: The proposal has launched an avalanche of questions and concerns, particularly from the Religious Left.

HANNAH ROSENTHAL (Jewish Council for Public Affairs): Will faith-based providers be permitted to use federal funds to promote religious beliefs? Will faith-based providers be permitted to engage in religious discrimination in hiring? And will we be using my tax dollars to do that?