Vol. 73/No. 8      March 2, 2009

A Financial Times report February 6 on the news conference where Obama announced the new office said its priorities are fighting poverty, “reducing teenage pregnancies and abortion,” and “encouraging ‘responsible fatherhood.’” The newspaper added, “The aims reflect Mr Obama’s call in his inaugural address for a ‘new era of responsibility’ and represent a peace offering to social conservatives who opposed his election.”

Bush set up his “faith-based” office in 2001 to funnel government money to church groups and nonprofit organizations to provide social services. It was part of continuing the Clinton administration’s drive against Social Security and the idea that the government, not charity or the individual family, should be responsible for the social needs of working people.

The Bush administration dismissed charges that his initiative violated separation of church and state and provided government money to religious groups that discriminate in hiring. When Congress wouldn’t exempt church organizations from antidiscrimination legislation, Bush issued an executive order essentially waiving the hiring laws for these church groups.

In a campaign speech last July, Obama criticized the Bush initiative, saying, “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.”

But when he announced his own “faith-based” office, Obama left the Bush exemption of church groups from antidiscrimination laws in place. Obama said the discrimination issue could be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.

During one of his debates with John McCain during the 2008 presidential campaign, Obama had explained that he supports legal abortion but it’s “a moral issue and one that I think good people on both sides can disagree on. There surely is some common ground when both those who believe in choice and those who are opposed to abortion can come together and say, ‘We should try to prevent unintended pregnancies.’” He also called in his election campaign for the Democratic Party platform to be rewritten to add a call for reducing “the need for abortions.”

In announcing the new faith-based office, Obama appealed directly to religion, saying that “the change that Americans are looking for will not come from government alone… . There is a force for good greater than government.”

He spoke along similar lines at a National Prayer Breakfast earlier that day, where he gave a speech that began with how such breakfasts originated during the Great Depression. “The leaders of the community did all that they could for those who were suffering in their midst,” Obama said. “And then they decided to do something more: they prayed.”

In the debate over the economic stimulus bill adopted by the House of Representatives, Obama personally intervened with Democrats to get them to delete an item that would have made it easier for states to provide Medicaid funding for contraception, according to the Associated Press. The news agency reported that Obama’s move came “at a time the administration is courting Republican critics of the legislation.”

Several prominent conservative church leaders have welcomed the Obama presidency in light of these recent moves. Joel Hunter, pastor of the Northland Church near Orlando, Florida, said, “I’m pro-life. I hate abortion. But this administration is trying to be very sensitive.” Frank Page, an appointee to Obama’s faith-based advisory council and past president of the Southern Baptist Convention, reacted to Obama’s failure to revoke the Bush policy on discrimination in hiring. “I’m very excited about this,” said Page. “I know he was struggling with this particular issue. But this will allow religious groups to be true to themselves.”  
 
 
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