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eNews for Faith-Based Organizations
February 6, 2009
Editor: Stanley Carlson-Thies
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President Obama Announces His Faith-Based Initiative
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In comments at the National Prayer Breakfast, a White House announcement, and an executive order, President Obama unveiled yesterday many details of his revised version of the federal faith-based initiative.
Background. The federal initiative was launched during the Clinton administration with the incorporation of the Charitable Choice provision into several major federal programs (welfare, Community Services Block Grants, and federal drug treatment) and the creation of a Center for Interfaith and Community Partnerships at HUD.
President George W. Bush massively expanded the initiative in a campaign to make the federal government more of a support than a substitute for faith-based and secular grassroots organizations. His initiative particularly stressed safeguarding in federal law and practice the religious freedom of faith-based organizations. To carry out the work, he established a White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives and Centers for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives in 11 federal agencies and at the Corporation for National and Community Service.
Expanded Mandate. In addition to the Bush initiative's focus on improving how the federal government works with and supports secular and religious community-serving organizations, President Obama wants religious leaders to have a larger formal say in the design of federal policy and also to help encourage greater understanding between religions, domestically and globally.
Revised Structure. The White House faith-based office has been renamed the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships (OFBNP). Joshua DuBois will be its Executive Director. Its staff will be greatly expanded. The agency centers will be maintained in some form. Judging from press reports, special areas of emphasis will include fatherhood, adoption, and reducing abortions.
The biggest change is the creation of the President's Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, which will advise the President, via the head of the OFBNP, on policy concerning faith-based and grassroots services. This Council can hold hearings and create taskforces to investigate and report. The Council will have up to 25 members. Fifteen of the members were named yesterday. They include:
Father Larry Snyder, President of Catholic Charities USA
Rev. Joel Hunter, a centrist evangelical pastor
Jim Wallis of Sojourners
Richard Stearns, President of World Vision
Dr. Frank Page, past president of the Southern Baptist Convention
Fred Davie, President of Public/Private Ventures
Rabbi David Saperstein, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism
Melissa Rogers, Wake Forest School of Divinity Center for Religion and Public Affairs
Revised Executive Order. President Obama's executive order to create his faith-based initiative amends President Bush's Executive Order 13199, which created the Bush White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. The revisions stress holding grantees accountable for measurable results, the federal government's responsibility to strengthen the management and service capacity of private groups, and the importance of staying within the constitutional guidelines: equal protection of the laws, free exercise of religion, and no establishment of religion (the Bush language stressed that programs must be "results oriented" and respect the "bedrock principles of pluralism, nondiscrimination, evenhandedness, and neutrality").
The Obama executive order adds this provision: "in order to ensure that Federal programs and practices involving grants or contracts to faith-based organizations are consistent with law, the Executive Director, acting through the Counsel to the President, may seek the opinion of the Attorney General on any constitutional and statutory questions involving existing or prospective programs and practices." Of course, the Bush Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives itself consulted regularly with the Attorney General, the Office of Legal Counsel at the Department of Justice, and the White House Office of Legal Counsel.
Religious Staffing Freedom Unclear. It remains unclear what the final policy of the Obama administration will be about religious hiring by faith-based organizations that receive federal funds. In response to reporters' demands for a clear statement about whether President Obama will carry though on a campaign commitment to forbid religious hiring in any social service program a faith-based organization operates with federal funds, Joshua DuBois stressed the legal review process and the need for "case-by-case" determinations (see reports in the Washington Post, New York Times, and Wall Street Journal).
Given that no new policy has been announced, presumably the status quo remains, for now: faith-based organizations that receive federal funds are free to hire on a religious basis, unless the specific funding program (such as Head Start) bans the freedom, or unless the federal funds first pass through a state or local agency that forbids religious hiring. If the federal program bans religious staffing, the faith-based organization can appeal to the Religious Freedom Restoration Act to set aside the ban, if being unable to select employees on a religious basis would substantially burden its religious exercise.
Both the religious staffing issue and the question whether a faith-based organization that receives federal funds can (separately) engage in evangelism are reportedly subject to legal review and case-by-case examination. This uncertainty about standards is in sharp contrast with the Bush approach, which sought to create certainty for faith-based organizations by clarifying the constitutional and statutory rules, promulgating detailed regulations, and issuing guidance to officials and to nonprofit groups.
Hopefully, the new White House office will issue clear guidance once its studies and legal reviews are completed. Faith-based organizations must know in advance whether their religious identity, faith-based practices (including religious hiring), and faith-shaped services (including voluntary, privately paid religious activities) will be protected if they agree to help the federal government respond to social need.
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Eye on the Media
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Unfortunately, press reports on the faith-based initiative continue to be as misleading as ever.
Laura Meckler in the Wall Street Journal allowed David Kuo again to claim that the religious hiring freedom matters to "very few charities" and is merely a distraction. That would be news to the dozen faith-based leaders I took to a meeting with transition officials. Each of them stated plainly that their organizations-evangelical, orthodox Jewish, or Catholic-would not be able to partner with the federal government if their freedom to consider religion in choosing their staffs would no longer be respected.
Meckler also repeated the view that the issue of "whether an organization that received tax dollars can make hiring decisions on the basis of religion" is a constitutional church-state question. That's not what federal judges in New York (Lown v. Salvation Army, 2005) or Washington state (Spencer v. World Vision, 2008) have determined, nor was it the view of the Pew-funded Roundtable on Religion and Social Welfare Policy.
A FOXNews.com report yesterday said that "One question is whether the faith-based office will continue to hand out grants under the Bush rules while the hiring issue is under legal review." But, of course, the Bush faith-based office had no authority over federal grantmaking. Federal grants are awarded by federal departments and agencies and not by the White House. A report of the US Government Accountability Office in June 2006 thoroughly debunked the charge of White House allocation of grants.
A Washington Post article on Friday, after reporting that some "church-state separationists" think that evangelical religious leaders such as Jim Wallis and Frank Page ought not to be on the new Council, said this: "Under Bush, religious groups argued that they could use taxpayer-funded programs to proselytize - helping people out of poverty and addiction by teaching them about God and salvation." Of course, there is always some group that believes in whatever opinion you can dream up. But the Bush faith-based initiative guidelines were crystal clear: when the government funds a program by grants or contracts, then evangelism and other "inherently religious activities" have to be "separate in location or time" from the federally funded services, voluntary for clients, and privately funded. If the services are offered in a voucher system where the client has choices, including one or more secular services, then faith-integrated services can be part of the array of services. But in that case, it is the client, and not the government, choosing the religion. These rules were crafted in response to US Supreme Court decisions.
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For further information:
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e-mail: info@irfAlliance.org
website (in construction): www.irfAlliance.org
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What is IRFA?
The Institutional Religious Freedom Alliance works to safeguard the religious identity, faith-based standards and practices, and faith-shaped services of faith-based organizations across the range of service sectors and religions, enabling them to make their distinctive and best contributions to the common good.
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