Obama to expand Bush's faith based programs

[Eric Rassbach]

Obama to expand Bush's faith based programs

By JENNIFER LOVEN - 1 hour ago

CHICAGO (AP) - Reaching out to evangelical voters, Democratic
presidential candidate Barack Obama is announcing plans to expand
President Bush's program steering federal social service dollars to
religious groups and - in a move sure to cause controversy - support
some ability to hire and fire based on faith.

Obama was unveiling his approach to getting religious charities more
involved in government anti-poverty programs during a tour and remarks
Tuesday in Zanesville, Ohio, at Eastside Community Ministry, which
provides food, clothes, youth ministry and other services.

"The challenges we face today ... are simply too big for government to
solve alone," Obama was to say, according to a prepared text of his
remarks obtained by The Associated Press. "We need all hands on deck."

Obama's announcement is part of a series of events leading up to
Friday's Fourth of July holiday that are focused on American values.

The Democratic presidential candidate spent Monday talking about his
vision of patriotism in the battleground state of Missouri. By twinning
that with Tuesday's talk about faith in another battleground state, he
was attempting to settle debate in two key areas where his beliefs have
come under question while also trying to make inroads with
constituencies traditionally loyal to Republicans.

But Obama's support for letting religious charities that receive federal
funding consider religion in employment decisions could invite a storm
of protest from those who view such faith requirements as
discrimination.

Obama does not support requiring religious tests for recipients of aid
nor using federal money to proselytize, according to a campaign fact
sheet. He also only supports letting religious institutions hire and
fire based on faith in the non-taxypayer funded portions of their
activities, said a senior adviser to the campaign, who spoke on
condition of anonymity to more freely describe the new policy.

Bush supports broader freedoms for taxpayer-funded religious charities.
But he never got Congress to go along so he has conducted the program
through administrative actions and executive orders.

David Kuo, a conservative Christian who was deputy director of Bush's
Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives until 2003 and later
became a critic of Bush's commitment to the cause, said Obama's position
on hiring has the potential to be a major "Sister Souljah moment" for
his campaign.

This is a reference to Bill Clinton's accusation in his 1992
presidential campaign that the hip hop artist incited violence against
whites. Because Clinton said this before a black audience, it fed into
an image of him as a bold politician who was willing to take risks and
refused to pander.

"This is a massive deal," said Kuo, who is not an Obama adviser or
supporter but was contacted by the campaign to review the new plan.

Kuo called Obama's approach smart, impressive and well thought-out but
took a wait-and-see attitude about whether it would deliver.

"When it comes to promises to help the poor, promises are easy," said
Kuo, who wrote a 2006 book describing his frustration at what he called
Bush's lackluster enthusiasm for the program. "The question is
commitment."

Obama proposes to elevate the program to a "moral center" of his
administration, by renaming it the Council for Faith-Based and
Neighborhood Partnerships, and changing training from occasional huge
conferences to empowering larger religious charities to mentor smaller
ones in their communities.

Saying social service spending has been shortchanged under Bush, he also
proposes a $500 million per year program to provide summer learning for
1 million poor children to help close achievement gaps with white and
wealthier students. A campaign fact sheet said he would pay for it by
better managing surplus federal properties, reducing growth in the
federal travel budget and streamlining the federal procurement process.

Like Bush, Obama was arguing that religious organizations can and should
play a bigger role in serving the poor and meeting other social needs.
But while Bush argued that the strength of religious charities lies
primarily in shared religious identity between workers and recipients,
Obama was to tout the benefits of their "bottom-up" approach.

"Because they're so close to the people, they're well-placed to offer
help," he was to say.

He also planned to talk bluntly about the genesis of his Christian faith
in his work as a community organizer in Chicago, and its importance to
him now.

"In time, 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," he was to say.