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Where's the Beef on Obama's New Faith-Based Initiative Plan?

Barack Obama is unveiling a plan to reform and invigorate President Bush's program of faith-based initiatives. In a speech today dedicated to the topic, Obama is expected to point to his own religious background as motivation for the new policy:

"I came to see faith as being both a personal commitment to Christ and a commitment to my community; that while I could sit in church and pray all I want, I wouldn't be fulfilling God's will unless I went out and did the Lord's work."

The plan centers around an office Obama would establish called the President's Council for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. According to a factsheet provided by the campaign, the primary goals of the council are relatively simple:

Obama’s President's Council for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships will launch a program to "Train the Trainers" by empowering hundreds of intermediary nonprofits and larger faith-based organizations to train thousands of local faith-based and community-based organizations on best practices, grant-making procedures, service delivery and limitations. The Office will host regular training sessions for selected community training partners. These partners... would be supported to travel to Washington and learn how to train local faith-based and community organizations on accessing federal service delivery dollars, remaining in compliance, avoiding proselytizing, understanding hiring rules, and reporting outcomes.

There is no mention of the goals of the faith-based organizations who receive federal grants through the council, except for a stated desire to close the summer learning gap between poor, minority students and rich, white students. Outside of that, presumably, faith-based groups will be able to set their own agendas. Perhaps more importantly, there is no mention of money — neither Obama's speech nor the campaign's factsheet discuss what sort of funds the council will have to work with, both to run itself and to administer in the form of federal grants to faith-based groups. We don't know if Obama will give more or less than Bush currently does.

The plan is already winning plaudits, despite its lack of details. David Kuo, a conservative Christian who was deputy director of Bush's Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives early in the Administration but left and wrote a book slamming Bush's commitment to the cause, calls Obama's plan a "massive deal."

John DiIulio, who was the director of the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives in 2001 and is most famous for the phrase "Mayberry Machiavellis," says, "Senator Barack Obama has offered a principled, prudent, and problem-solving vision for the future of community-serving partnerships involving religious nonprofit organizations."

Obama's plan will have safeguards. From his speech:

Now, make no mistake, as someone who used to teach constitutional law, I believe deeply in the separation of church and state, but I don’t believe this partnership will endanger that idea — so long as we follow a few basic principles. First, if you get a federal grant, you can't use that grant money to proselytize to the people you help and you can't discriminate against them — or against the people you hire — on the basis of their religion. Second, federal dollars that go directly to churches, temples, and mosques can only be used on secular programs. And we’ll also ensure that taxpayer dollars only go to those programs that actually work.

There's no reason to suspect that Obama's outreach to evangelicals is insincere, but that doesn't mean I can't point out that it's also politically advantageous. (Translation: This isn't necessarily a pander, but it has the effects of one.) Christian evangelicals went 80-20 for Bush over Kerry. The political scuttlebutt says Obama could get one-third to 40 percent, an increase that is made more likely by today's moves. And as Noam Scheiber points out at TNR, there's a ricochet effect here: by proving that he is comfortable working with Christian churches, Obama allays the fears of white, working class voters who may not be evangelicals themselves. And it helps dampen those crypto-Muslim rumors that never seem to go away.

Comments

OK..., So it was stupid pandering, and spreading taxpayer money around to religious organizations for ANY purpose constituted a violation of the separation of Church and State when Dubya started it.
Are we together on this..? I know we USED to Be!

So what do we have to say to Barack Obama on the matter?

Someone..?
Someone..?
Anyone..?
Bueller..?
Bueller..?

Wonder if Keith Olbermann is about to flip-flop on THIS issue as well.., angling for that "Chief Limbaugh" position in the Obama presidency..?

And Jonathan: Can you look back over your writing and see if you were giving Bush the benefit of the doubt when he started this nonsense?
There's no reason to suspect that Obama's outreach to evangelicals is insincere..
Translation: This isn't necessarily a pander...

Barack Obama: ...federal dollars that go directly to churches, temples, and mosques can only be used on secular programs.

Yeah, but it'll still have the effect of getting them through the church doors, won't it?
Maybe we should fund some benevolent programs run by whorehouses...?
(Oh.., wait..., that's Congress.., isn't it?)

B.O.: And we’ll also ensure that taxpayer dollars only go to those programs that actually work.
THAT'LL be a Massively Refreshing change!
When is the last time the Federal Government terminated one of It's OWN programs that was failing to show results? The solution has always been to Spend More ON It!

Posted by: DemoPublicans One And All on 07/01/08 at 1:21 PM Respond

i'm undecided whether to vote for nader or barr -- last thing we need's another freak of religiosity running things in washington

Posted by: HoraceManoor on 07/01/08 at 2:10 PM Respond

HoraceManoor, I'm with you. I'm hoping Nader makes it on the Va ballot. First Obama starts chanting the pro-globatlization slogan "Americans must compete", which is exactly what McCain is saying. Don't expect any wage increases. Now, he's pulling this funding religious groups crap. I'd feel comfortable with my taxpayer dollars going to united way, salvation army, or even the SPCA. It disturbs me he's pandering to these fucking Christian groups who will want to use that money to pursue their own agenda and "spread the word of Christ".

Posted by: just call me....roy on 07/01/08 at 3:49 PM Respond

I am shocked and alarmed at Obama's faith-based program proposal. It is the worst kind of pandering and/or an incredibly naive perception of the results that actually occur when religious groups receive government funding. For me, the hope he represented is gone.

Posted by: NH Freedom Ringer on 07/01/08 at 7:04 PM Respond

I don't really care whether Obama is a believer or not.
I'm not so I resent it when because of their beliefs they believe it is Ok to give tax money to churches. Churches should be taxed and so should Wal Mart and Exxon. If there were no exceptions (special interests)it seems that would lessen the burden on the citizens and provide more money for those in need.
Obama talks a good game but lacks the true grit we desperately need NOW.

Posted by: elemental jim on 07/02/08 at 7:51 AM Respond

The Kool Aid is wearing off.

A New Kind of Politics is just the same old stuff, only done by someone who pretends to be a lefty and who does tricky sound bites even more artistically than Karl Rove.

He's backed off on pulling out of NAFTA, Iraq withdrawal, preemptive strikes on Iran, gun contol, capital punishment, and now on bribing churches for votes. Also, remember he never even offered Universal Health Care plan -- instead repeating a republican talking point that people should be able to choose not to have insurance.

We fell for it hook, line, and sinker. Now we gotta live with it.

Posted by: Rulvy on 07/02/08 at 12:38 PM Respond

AMERICA HAS CANCER
America has Crypto-Neo-Marxist Ideology Cancer in the executive, legislative, and judicial organs of government; which impairs the functioning of her Christian Culture and Constitutional Law. Historically, spontaneous remission occurs when the natural immune system, patriotism, produces a inflammation reaction, nationalism, which kills and expels these cancers.

Posted by: Jeugenen on 07/04/08 at 9:59 AM Respond

Obama is a Bible thumper, in his own way. Bush was a Christian Zionist. Ms.Clinton had her secret prayer cell. Obama is out front with his Christianity, unlike John McCain who is not a religious man like Obama. Most of the evangelicals that voted for Bush will vote for Obama.

Posted by: Pastor Leroy Jackson on 07/04/08 at 10:07 AM Respond