Crafting Policy Agenda, Obama Team Brings in Faith Groups
The president-elect and his staff have held about 15 meetings so far with religious groups
Transition team meetings with faith groups focused on planning for a Council for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, Obama's version of the faith-based initiatives office that President Bush launched during his first term. The meetings have included advocates of strict church-state separation, who have traditionally criticized such programs.
"It doesn't bother me," Americans United for Separation of Church and State Executive Director Barry W. Lynn says of the Obama policy of having aides sit down frequently with religious groups. "It would only bother me if [Obama] starts implementing the policies of religious groups that are inconsistent with guarantees of the Constitution, and I haven't seen that yet."
Still, creating consensus around the Council for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships is emerging as an early challenge in Obama's efforts to satisfy both secular liberal and religious groups. For instance, proponents of church-state separation want Obama to peel back Bush-era exemptions on employment nondiscrimination laws for religious organizations receiving federal funds—allowing Christian groups to hire only Christians—while some religious groups say they need such hiring discretion to maintain the religious component of their programs.
For now, though, those groups are happy just to have the incoming administration's ear. "We're glad to have a good seat at the table and that [the Obama transition team] is listening to all sides," says Tanya Clay House, director of public policy for People for the American Way, which has expressed concerns about the propriety of federal faith-based initiatives. "The old administration listened to just one side of the argument."
- Read more about Democratic religious outreach.
- Read more by Dan Gilgoff.
Reader Comments
Rise
There is a tragic flaw in our precious Constitution, and I don't know what can be done to fix it. This is it: Only nut cases want to be president.
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Hi Marie,
I would like to know what proof you have that the Holy Bible is read in the schools of Russia and Jordan. Are you an international traveler or where is your info coming from if not 1st hand? Do you actually believe that people will stop shopping or going out to eat on Sunday or whatever day you refer to as the Sabbath? Why should teachers post the Ten Commandments on the bulletin board in their classrooms? Jesus Christ did not invent government in America and students should not have to recite the Bible in school or listen to prayers or scripture readings over the intercom. The Puritans and others used the Bible for required reading in education classes, modern Americans do not. Prayer in schools. What if you & your child don't share the beliefs of the teacher, would you want teacher led prayer then? Baptists & Episcopalians don't agree on very much. One prays long winded prayers from their heart or "off the top of their heads." The other reads from "The Prayer Book." Do Methodists want a Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, Mormon, or Scientologist to lead classroom or football game prayers? Prayer in schools should only be done silently! Look what happens when there is NO SEX EDUCATION IN THE HOME, SCHOOL, OR CHURCH. Gov. Palin's daughter sneaks around, has premarital sex, births a baby and isn't married. That's probably what makes you upset. What makes me upset is that the baby isn't spending time with his daddy. Parents of a child should be living together & both spending time with child rearing activities whether they are married or not. When do Bristol & her boyfriend get to spend alone time together. Do they still have to sneak around. If they're going to get married, fine go ahead, but they ought to be living together & giving emotional support to each other and the baby they made. That is called being RESPONSIBLE for your actions. By the way is her boyfriend paying child support?
The US Constitution Has No Separation of Church and State
If "Separation of Church and State" were in our Constitution, it would not mean we must ignore God's wisdom in the Bible. That would be ignorance.That would leave us only with the wisdom of man and we see our system falling apart with that. The phrase never was in our Constitution. (Religion means denomination.) The word of God in the Bible is used by many thousands of religions or denominations. The Qur'an says to follow the whole Bible; Jesus said to live by EVERY word of God.
The First Amendment to the Constitution says:
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;
or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press;
or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
(Note: Congress is the House of Representative and the Senate.)
The Constitution allows states to do whatever they want according to their laws. Example: when Christ comes to establish His kingdom on earth, some states might want to be a part of that kingdom, meaning they would follow the laws of the king.
If Barack Obama puts restrictions on the Faith Based Initiative Programs, he will be against the Constitution by preventing the free exercise of their religion.
Notice no one of the Obama Transition Team or the religious groups were asking to restore the Ten Commandments to the classrooms, make the 7th day a Sabbath of no work as the Ten Commandments say, or allow the Bible to be read in schools as they do in Jordan and Russia.
Sex education and promotion of condoms have produced a culture of unwed mothers and sexually transmitted disease, so much so that we want to vaccinate 13 year old girls and up to prevent cancer of the cervix caused by fornication. When the word of God is lifted into view, we will see the honorable nation we were meant to be; and we will be protected by the hand of God according to His word.
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