February 9, 2009 | Read Time: 2 minutes
Eboo Patel, founder and executive director of Interfaith Youth Core, in Chicago, last week joined the President’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships and in a blog for The Washington Post, he explains why.
Mr. Patel writes that the president impressed him during a meeting with the members of the group, which is composed of secular and religious charity leaders who will advise the president on antipoverty policy and other issues.
“He talked about the front-line work that so many organizations are doing to keep people fed and clothed and sheltered in America, and how much more acute the need is during an economic crisis. He talked about how many of those front-line groups are faith-based, and how we needed to do as much as possible to support each other and our fellow Americans in need right now,” writes Mr Patel.
“This is not the time to argue between faith-based and secular, or Muslim and Christian, he emphasized. This is the time to find the common ground of compassion in all faiths and traditions, and put it into action where it is needed most,” Mr. Patel adds.
But President Obama’s effort to aid religious charities is under fire from others.
For example, on The Washington Post blog Under God, David Waters, a Post editor, writes that churches and other religious organizations should not be allowed to receive federal grants if they discriminate in hiring based on their beliefs.
“There’s a simple and faithful way to solve this problem. If evangelical groups don’t want the federal government telling them what they can or cannot do with federal tax dollars, they shouldn’t take federal funds,” Mr. Waters writes.
On the campaign trail, Mr. Obama promised to prohibit the hiring practice. But in his executive order last week that established the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships he did not directly stop it. Instead he said that contentious issues about religious discrimination and such would be handled on a case-by-case basis by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Read The Chronicle’s article about the new Obama effort.
What do you think of the new council and Mr. Obama’s approach to the hiring issue? Click on the comment button below to share your views.
