Faith-Based
President Obama has tapped a 26-year-old Pentecostal minister who worked on his campaign to manage his re-conceptualized office of faith-based initiatives, now titled the Council for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, the New York Times reports. I'll be very curious to see how this turns out. I have a long-standing interest in how faith and public service interact as a matter of philosophy. But also from an efficacy standpoint, it remains to be seen how effective such an office can really be, as Brian Friel and Paul Singer explored ($, but if you email me, I'll send you the story) in National Journal in 2007.
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Government Executive Staff Correspondent Alyssa Rosenberg takes a look at news affecting the management and operations of the massive federal bureaucracy.
I think the office should be abolished. I believe in strict separation of church and state. Also, the original office was notorious for only funding Christian based charities. As a person who is not a Christian, a Jew, or a Muslim, I ask, have Unitarian or neo-pagan or other charities based on non-traditional religions ever been funded? If not, why? I have read that meetings for this program occured at times Jewish people were unlikely to be able to attend, such as Saturday morning.
Have these discriminatory practices ended?
Linda Robinett Posted Thursday, January 29, 2009 10:36 AMI guess we can take solice that the Bin laden wasn't selected
dan ketter Posted Thursday, January 29, 2009 12:52 PMThe reason you won't find Unitarian charities funded is we don't apply. We, as a denomination, believe very strongly in church state separation.
Unitarian Posted Thursday, January 29, 2009 3:20 PMAs the leader of a non-profit that is in the process of merging with a church-I can see the benefits. in 2001 I was sceptical of it. The governments previous experience with the native american schools and churches was in many instances extremely misguided.But that was a different time and era.
Churches are vital to the strength,happiness, safety and health of our communities. There is a common ground where religous groups of any faith, governments and private sector can work together.
Lance Posted Friday, January 30, 2009 11:47 AM