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David Brody is reporting that President Obama will announce the formation of an advisory council for his faith-based initiative during his speech at the National Prayer Breakfast tomorrow. Brody's source tells him "that the council won't be made up of 'The Usual Suspects'. In other words, it won't be just a bunch of progressive liberals." Heaven forbid. Jeff Sharlet, whose seminal reporting on the sponsor of the National Prayer Breakfast, The Family, was first published in Harpers in 2003, described the organization and its annual breakfast event:
The organization has operated under many guises, some active, some defunct: National Committee for Christian Leadership, International Christian Leadership, the National Leadership Council, Fellowship House, the Fellowship Foundation, the National Fellowship Council, the International Foundation. These groups are intended to draw attention away from the Family, and to prevent it from becoming, in the words of one of the Family's leaders, “a target for misunderstanding.” The Family's only publicized gathering is the National Prayer Breakfast, which it established in 1953 and which, with congressional sponsorship, it continues to organize every February in Washington, D.C. Each year 3,000 dignitaries, representing scores of nations, pay $425 each to attend. Steadfastly ecumenical, too bland most years to merit much press, the breakfast is regarded by the Family as merely a tool in a larger purpose: to recruit the powerful attendees into smaller, more frequent prayer meetings, where they can “meet Jesus man to man.”Brody says the council Obama is putting together -- which will consist of volunteers from outside his administration who will advise his new faith-based office -- will not just be focused on doling out grants but on shaping policy, like health care reform and responses to poverty. Which is why the downplaying of the role of progressive "usual suspects" and the unveiling of the the program at the National Prayer Breakfast is a disturbing twist in Obama's frequently troubled efforts to blend faith and policy.The Family is not a milquetoast do-gooder organization. The Family has always opposed organized labor and the New Deal, and was indeed built upon the opposition of its founder, Abram Vereide, to unions and the social gospel teachings of those "usual suspect" liberals. (For more, see my interview with Sharlet from last year.) Vereide's successor, The Family's current leader, Doug Coe, admires Hitler, urging his followers to exhibit the same blind devotion to Jesus that Hitler's followers showed to him. Nonetheless, it has succeeded in convincing even Democrats like Hillary Clinton of the political necessity of engaging with its fundamentalist religion.On NPR this morning, Barbara Bradley Haggerty also reported that the announcement will take place tomorrow, although her reporting didn't suggest it would take place at the National Prayer Breakfast. Her piece highlighted one of the most contentious issues facing Obama as he attempts to reform Bush's faith-based initiative: whether he will repeal Bush's executive order permitting recipients of faith-based, taxpayer-funded grants to discriminate on the basis of their religion. In other words, whether they would be allowed to receive federal money, yet discriminate against employees or prospective employees on the basis of their religion or sexual orientation. Although during the campaign Obama pledged to end such discrimination through his program, since taking office he hasn't commented on it, and many of the individuals and organizations whose advice he has sought in shaping his version of the faith-based initiative are steadfastly opposed to changing the Bush-era rule. Many of those liberal "usual suspects" of whom Brody is dismissive are opposed to discrimination by faith-based recipients of government grants.The White House did not respond to an inquiry about whether Obama would reverse any of the Bush-era executive orders, including the one permitting employment discrimination, and did not immediately respond to a request for confirmation of Brody's reporting that the announcement will take place at the National Prayer Breakfast.I'll update with more information as I'm able to confirm it.--Sarah Posner
