After all the anticipation and leaks, the White House finally made the creation of the Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships official. According to the announcement, the Office "will work on behalf of Americans committed to improving their communities, no matter their religious or political beliefs."
Yet, as with most things, it's not so simple. As expected, Obama is not going to resolve -- at least now -- the constitutional problems he pledged to eradicate on the campaign trail. Instead, he is authorizing the office's director, Joshua DuBois, to work "through the White House Counsel to seek the advice of the Attorney General on difficult legal and constitutional issues." This means that the controversial Bush-era executive orders permitting direct funding of houses of worship and religion-based employment discrimination will remain in place indefinitely. "Giving the same, flawed program a new name and new personnel is not the change we need,” said Ron Millar, acting director of the Secular Coalition for America. “Not another taxpayer dollar should be spent until all the constitutional and civil rights concerns are addressed."
While the Bush faith-based initiative focused on doling out grants to faith-based organizations, the Obama initiative claims some additional roles, which are largely aspirational and in some cases surprising, including making community groups "an integral part of our economic recovery;" working with other parts of the administration "that will look at how we support women and children, address teenage pregnancy, and reduce the need for abortion;" striving to "support fathers who stand by their families, which involves working to get young men off the streets and into well-paying jobs, and encouraging responsible fatherhood;" and working with the National Security Council "to foster interfaith dialogue with leaders and scholars around the world."
To assist with the endeavor, Obama has created a council of outside advisers, including religious leaders such as the Revs. Joel Hunter and Jim Wallis, big proponents of the abortion reduction strategy that I reported on late last year. Two other members of the advisory council, constitutional scholar and expert Melissa Rogers and the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism's David Saperstein, have also endorsed the CLURT agenda.)
I still have a lot of concerns about DuBois, who ran the campaign's religious outreach, rewarding religious figures viewed as helpful to the campaign with positions on the council. One of the big religion stories last year was the Democrats' robust religious outreach, and particularly their quest to peel away the votes of more moderate evangelicals. The White House needs to do a lot to dispel any perception of such quid pro quo.
How these other projects will be implemented remains to be seen, as does the actual influence of the council. From the selection of advisory council members, though, it is clear that Obama is aiming to include even some of the most conservative voices, like the Southern Baptist Convention's past president, the Rev. Frank Page. But this drive for post-partisanship has clearly weakened Obama's own voice and leadership, as his decision not to rescind the Bush executive orders makes clear. Including a diversity of opinion surely has some value, but at some point Obama has got to demonstrate that he holds to some principles other than avoiding the resolution of controversial issues under the guise of common ground.
--Sarah Posner
