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Obama's Faith-Based Initiative
by Bret Kincaid

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Edging carefully (and tactically) to the ideological center, last week Senator Barack Obama announced his plan to revamp President Bush's faith-based community initiatives program, calling it Council for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships (CFNP). The plan's purpose isn't controversial-helping the poor and needy-but the means to accomplish the purpose are. Many of those who have watched or worked closely with Bush's faith-based community initiatives feared the program may be scaled way down or end with the Bush administration since the policy dances so controversially around the principle of separation of church and state. But Obama made it clear in his July 1 Zanesville, Ohio speech that he, if elected president, would revise and expand it.

Controversies over the plan still exist, however. Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, of course, still opposes any government funding channeled to faith-based organizations. Executive Director Rev. Barry W. Lynn responded to Obama's speech, saying, "This initiative has been a failure on all counts, and it ought to be shut down, not expanded."

Although Obama did not provide overall figures, it was clear from his speech that he plans to provide more federal dollars for CFNP than the Bush administration annually spent. For instance, Obama promised an annual $500 million for a summer learning enrichment program for a million children. He also pledged to institutionalize an evaluation process to assess what programs work and which do not.

Perhaps the most controversial component, at least from the perspective of those who have generally supported federally funded faith-based initiatives, is the issue of discrimination in hiring. Most everyone agrees that these federally-funded programs must have a secular purpose and that they cannot discriminate on the basis of religion against those who are served. But what about those who are hired to serve in the programs? Obama said his program will not permit hiring discrimination on the basis of religion, which means faith-based organizations cannot consider religion as a factor in hiring people to deliver federally funded services in a religious organization. Harvard Law Professor Martha Minow, who has advised the Obama campaign on this issue, reportedly said that "Mr. Obama would move to ‘return the law to what it was before the current administration.'" It was President Bush who issued executive orders to allow religious organizations receiving federal funds to consider religion a factor in hiring. Obama's reversal of this policy has sparked criticism from the Christian Right but also from moderates like Richard Cizik of the National Association of Evangelicals, who said this part of the CFNP was "extremely disappointing."

According to Steve Waldman, co-founder of Beliefnet, this legal controversy is generally not relevant to much of the work of faith-based organizations. Apparently, most of the larger faith-based organizations are legally skilled enough to navigate the hiring rules, and many jobs in faith-based programs do not require a person of a particular faith. Still, Waldman admits that there are "important principles at stake." He points out that there are many jobs in which a person of a particular faith is necessary to accomplish even a so-called "secular" purpose, such as kicking an addiction or reducing recidivism. If a faith-based organization is legally prohibited from requiring faith in hiring an employee, the purpose for which he or she is hired may be undermined. Furthermore, Waldman asks us to remember that allowing religion to be a factor in hiring, as Bush mandated, cuts both ways. Non-Christian faith-based organizations could hire only non-Christian employees to carry out federally funded services.

Senator John McCain's presidential campaign responded to Obama's speech by reiterating McCain's support of faith-based initiatives, adding, "He also believes that it is important for faith-based groups to be able to hire people who share their faith, and he disagrees with Senator Obama that hiring at faith-based groups should be subject to government oversight."

Let's hope McCain unveils his own faith-based initiatives plan so we can have a civil debate about how to properly craft a partnership between government and religious organizations for the purpose of addressing the challenges of the poor and needy. In the meanwhile, we can rest assured that the next administration will carry on federally-financed faith-based initiatives.

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