Obama’s Plan For Faith Based Initiatives
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in 2008 Election, Barack, Money, Religion
Obama’s play for the evangelical vote continues…but, unlike his predecessor, he’s less interested in what faith can do and much more interested in how the faithful can help.
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is announcing plans to expand President Bush’s program steering federal social service dollars to religious groups and — in a move sure to cause controversy — support some ability to hire and fire based on faith. [...]“The challenges we face today … are simply too big for government to solve alone,” Obama was to say, according to a prepared text of his remarks obtained by The Associated Press. “We need all hands on deck.”
This one is sure to stir up a hornet’s nest in some corners of the Democratic party, but let’s get a couple things straight because when the AP claims he supports “some ability to hire and fire based on faith,” that’s true, but misleading.
First, he’s against allowing the money to be used to push religion on anybody these charities aim to help, and that includes making them pass some sort of religious test for aid.
Second, he doesn’t support allowing these organizations the ability to hire and fire based on a person’s faith in the activities that are federally funded. However, he acknowledges that just because an organization accepts federal funds does not automatically make them a secular organization, and they should be allowed to hire and fire as they see fit in the activities that aren’t federally funded.
And here’s more on how he’d change the program from what Bush implemented…
Obama proposes to elevate the program to a “moral center” of his administration, by renaming it the Council for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, and changing training from occasional huge conferences to empowering larger religious charities to mentor smaller ones in their communities.
David Kuo, former Deputy Director of the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, had this to say…
Kuo called Obama’s approach smart, impressive and well thought-out but took a wait-and-see attitude about whether it would deliver.“When it comes to promises to help the poor, promises are easy,” said Kuo, who wrote a 2006 book describing his frustration at what he called Bush’s lackluster enthusiasm for the program. “The question is commitment.”
More as it develops…
This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 1st, 2008 and is filed under 2008 Election, Barack, Money, Religion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
July 1st, 2008 at 1:58 pm
[...] Obama is starting to show signs of moving more towards the center on FISA, faith based initiatives and gun [...]
July 1st, 2008 at 2:58 pm
Speaking from a purely political perspective, this is brilliant.
July 1st, 2008 at 11:48 pm
In the realm of serving the poor, the faithful have always been on the front line. While I’m not personally a Christian, I’m not opposed to funding ALL faiths in their work to eradicate poverty as long as religiosity is not a basis for receiving the service.
We actually need more than the faith community to take an active role in caring for the poor and homeless. We need an understanding that the problem may not be solvable but it is manageable. And we haven’t managed it very well in my own community. What we need is for people to care enough to act..and to care they have to believe they can make a difference. Right now, the situation feels hopeless. This is where the faithful come in…to infuse hope and faith where none currently exists.
THEN, others can catch the hope and that would really be something. As Polimom said, this is brilliant.
July 2nd, 2008 at 12:20 pm
Thank goodness Obama is wresting away the rigt-wings lock on “morality” and “faith”. See? Liberals have faith, too. Jesus was the greatest liberal of all time. This is more than just a political brilliance on Obama’s part. I truly believe this is sincere – and that’s what makes it brilliant.