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Word on the street is that President Obama is set to tap Joshua DuBois, who led religious outreach for his presidential campaign, to head his Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, the effort that Obama has promised will represent a reform of Bush's White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. The Rev. Welton Gaddy, president of the Interfaith Alliance, a church-state separation advocacy group that has been a consistent and vociferous critic of faith-based initiatives, issued a statement expressing cautious optimism that, based on his consultations with transition team members, including DuBois, Obama's version of the program would honor constitutional requirements:
In every conversation with senior officials on the transition team I have conveyed my preference for the faith based office to be eliminated and a community based office established to help the weakest, poorest, and neediest people in our nation. However, now that a decision has been made to establish and staff another faith based office, the question remains whether or not a change in the name of the office as organized by the Bush Administration will reflect substantive change in the policies of the Obama Administration that advocates for religious liberty find acceptable.Meanwhile, in related news, American United for the Separation of Church and State is calling for the Senate to strip $100 million in funding for the "Compassion Capital Fund" from the stimulus package passed yesterday in the House. The program has been a key component of the Bush faith-based initiative.--Sarah Posner
