Obama Faith Advisory Council to Meet for First Time Next Week
By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country
The White House Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships will convene in Washington for its first in-person meeting next Monday and Tuesday, according to a handful of sources. If all goes according to plan, the White House will use the occasion to announce 10 additional members of the council. A detailed agenda hasn't been released, but the council is expected to be divided into task forces in the areas that Mark Silk has reported:
the role of community organizations in economic recovery; fatherhood and healthy families; reducing the "need for abortions"; and international interreligious dialogue. There is also expected to be a task force relating to energy and climate change, and (yes) one that will take up the thorny legal ground rules under which the Obama faith-based programming will operate.
These task forces have already been powwowing by phone—there are a handful of formal and informal calls among council members every week—and will each be instructed to reach out to other religious leaders to develop policy recommendations. This outreach will be an important way for the White House to reach deep into various religious constituencies. Obama aides themselves are in direct contact with a much more limited universe.
More when I get it.
- Read more by Dan Gilgoff.
- Read more about the Obama administration.
Tags: religion | Obama administration
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Reader Comments
THE DANGER OF PARTNERING WITH THE WHITE HOUSE
It never seems to amaze me how this President and his administration want to rule over all bodies. I am fearful of any government that seeks to give and support faith based organizations. It becomes a political and controlling arm of the governing body. Religious organizations should remain true to their convictions not their connections. Whenever a church or religious organization take in government money, they are bound to their leadership a not free to do what is right for all people in the communities. Churches should do the ministry they have been entrusted with without the hand of the government leading the way.
Interreligious Dialogue
". . . and international interreligious dialogue. . . "
This interests me. I wonder what "international interreligious dialogue" would look like. I wonder what "national interreligious dialogue" would look like. Seems like an exciting prospect...
WHERE IS THE ACLU?
WHERE IS THE ACLU NOW? I THOUGHT THIS ORGANIZATION WAS FOR THE SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE, BUT IT APPEARS THAT THEIR CANDIDATE CAN DO NO WRONG. WHAT IF GEORGE BUSH, RONALD REAGAN, OR GOD FORBID RICHARD NIXON ORGANIZED A "FAITH BASED ADVISORY COUNCIL"? CAN ANYONE SAY STATE SANCTIONED RELIGIOUS POLICY WITH THE GOVERNMENT AS THE PRIMARY GIVER OF "CHARITY" TO THEIR BEHOLDEN SUBJECTS. ARE WE NOW A MONARCHY, THEOCRACY, OR DEMOCRACY?
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