Faith in Public Life, the organization that has promoted the role of the "broader agenda" evangelicals in politics and public discourse, is hailing the composition of the newly appointed advisory council for President Obama's new Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships because it "transcends left and right." In a statement, the group notes that many of the individuals on the Council served on the board of its Compassion Forum, adding that "We commend these visionary leaders and look forward to the new ground they will forge on issues ranging from poverty and hunger to fatherhood and abortion reduction to interfaith dialogue around the world." As I discussed in my earlier post, one of the surprising tasks the faith-based office will take on is "abortion reduction," a strategy Faith in Public LIfe has promoted as "common ground" between progressives and centrist evangelicals -- several of whom are serving on the president's advisory council. But the centrist evangelicals' favored approach to abortion reduction goes beyond the prevention of unintended pregnancies to include incentives for women to carry pregnancies to term, or as advisory council member Jim Wallis likes to call it, "the Juno option." The Rev. Debra Haffner, president of the Religious Institute on Sexual Morality, Justice and Healing, objects to the absence of strong voices for reproductive rights on the advisory council. She says:
We have requested a meeting with the new White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships to introduce them to the thousands of religious leaders who support sexual justice issues. As of yet, only one of the members of the new Advisory Council for the office is an outspoken supporter of women's reproductive choice (I do not know each person's position), although several of the named persons are vocal anti-choice supporters. Given the President's public commitments and the published White House agenda to work to prevent unintended pregnancies and support women's right to choose, the Religious Institute on Sexual Morality, Justice and Healing finds the lack of known denomination and religious organization leaders who support these issues troubling and disappointing when one of the stated objectives is to "reduce the need for abortion." We are happy to recommend such leaders to fill out the Advisory Committee.
--Sarah Posner
