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After months of work, President Barack Obama's Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships is about to send him dozens of proposals on revamping the White House's faith-based program. The proposals will also set priorities for the office and will renew debate -- and media coverage -- of this controversial initiative.
Polls show that the faith-based concept remains popular among the public, just as it was when the program began under Obama's predecessor, George W. Bush. But church-state questions about how to funnel taxpayer dollars to religious institutions have bedeviled the White House program from the start. Obama campaigned on a pledge to bar funds from houses of worship that would use the money to proselytize or discriminate in hiring on the basis of a prospective employee's religion and beliefs.
But those principles have proved difficult to codify in black-and-white regulations. As a result, Obama's faith-based office has been accused on the one hand of allowing too much freedom for religious groups that receive federal funds, and on the other of not allowing religious groups enough leeway to use the funds as they see fit. Others have criticized the Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships for not moving quickly enough given the state of the economy and the increasing social welfare needs, or for not giving faith leaders enough influence.
Certainly, the faith-based initiative that was a hallmark of the Bush White House is not going to disappear under Obama. In fact, the program will expand its mission to "foster interfaith dialogue with leaders and scholars around the world," according to the White House news release in February 2009 announcing the revamped office. How that will play out for houses of worship and religious institutions across the country that provide social services is a topic of much debate, even after Obama approves or rejects the proposals being sent to him by the advisory council.
This edition of ReligionLink provides background on the debate, as well as resources and experts for covering the changing landscape of the faith-based initiative in the Obama administration.
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Psalm 1
1Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
2But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and n