Bush faith-based policy gains Obama attention
Daniel Burke/Religion News Service
Issue date: 7/13/08 Section: Divine Intervention
WASHINGTON - Sen. Barack Obama said last week he would expand President Bush's initiative to fund religious charities and community ministries and make it central to his administration should he reach the White House.
Speaking at East Side Community Ministry in Zanesville, Ohio - a social-service provider in a battleground state - Obama said such groups are well placed to solve the country's most pressing problems, from poverty to the environment.
"I believe that change comes not from the top down, but from the bottom up," Obama said, "and few are closer to the people than our churches, synagogues, temples and mosques."
In an interview from Ohio, Obama, (D-Ill.), said faith-based groups can deliver more services with less bureaucratic red tape, and should not be prevented from receiving public money because of their religious affiliations.
"Frankly, in some communities," faith-based social services "may be the only game in town," he said. "And it's important that we don't leave them out as they carry on their work."
A liberal Democrat pledging to expand a signature program of a conservative Republican president may come as a surprise, but as a former community organizer in Chicago, Obama knows personally the outsize role that houses of worship can play in their neighborhoods.
Obama is also making a heavy push to reach religious voters - particularly Catholics and centrist evangelicals. Polls show his Republican opponent, Sen. John McCain, leading among those communities, but Obama may be quickly closing the so-called "God gap."
The plan Obama unveiled would expand President Bush's Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives, which he said was under funded and "never fulfilled its promise." "It has to be a real partnership, not a photo op," he said.
Bush's faith-based initiative, which was never approved by Congress, sought to open federal funding to grassroots religious charities and community groups. But former staffers and church-state watchdogs criticized the Bush administration for improperly mixing piety and politics.
Speaking at East Side Community Ministry in Zanesville, Ohio - a social-service provider in a battleground state - Obama said such groups are well placed to solve the country's most pressing problems, from poverty to the environment.
"I believe that change comes not from the top down, but from the bottom up," Obama said, "and few are closer to the people than our churches, synagogues, temples and mosques."
In an interview from Ohio, Obama, (D-Ill.), said faith-based groups can deliver more services with less bureaucratic red tape, and should not be prevented from receiving public money because of their religious affiliations.
"Frankly, in some communities," faith-based social services "may be the only game in town," he said. "And it's important that we don't leave them out as they carry on their work."
A liberal Democrat pledging to expand a signature program of a conservative Republican president may come as a surprise, but as a former community organizer in Chicago, Obama knows personally the outsize role that houses of worship can play in their neighborhoods.
Obama is also making a heavy push to reach religious voters - particularly Catholics and centrist evangelicals. Polls show his Republican opponent, Sen. John McCain, leading among those communities, but Obama may be quickly closing the so-called "God gap."
The plan Obama unveiled would expand President Bush's Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives, which he said was under funded and "never fulfilled its promise." "It has to be a real partnership, not a photo op," he said.
Bush's faith-based initiative, which was never approved by Congress, sought to open federal funding to grassroots religious charities and community groups. But former staffers and church-state watchdogs criticized the Bush administration for improperly mixing piety and politics.
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