faith-based initiative
What Britain’s government needs to know about its faith communities
By Colin Bloom — May 25, 2023
(RNS) — The U.K. government needs to be bolder, more discerning and more open to faith engagement.
Church-state separationist Barry Lynn recounts his legal arguments in new memoirs
By Adelle M. Banks — April 3, 2023
(RNS) — 'It is people who are hurting, people who are outcasts, that appealed to me,' Lynn said.
Fairness for All: Caught between gender equality and religious liberty
By Mark Silk — January 13, 2020
(RNS) — The Fairness for All Act, designed to sort out the right to provide services or not based on one's faith, works as sentiment, but falls short as policy.
Trump’s faith-based initiative guts key protection
By Mark Silk — May 3, 2018
The one protecting beneficiaries of federally funded social services from religious messages they don't want to hear.
Obama Administration backs religious discrimination in employment
By Mark Silk — June 16, 2014
Last week, 90 organizations on the separationist side of church-state politics asked Attorney General Eric Holder to renounce the Bush Administration's position that faith-based organizations (FBOs) can discriminate religiously in hiring for government-funded programs. What provoked the request was discovery of a Department of Justice (DOJ) memo in which the Obama Administration for the first time declares the Bush position to be federal policy.
DNC rediscovers religion
By Mark Silk — October 24, 2011
Back in May of 2010, intrepid WaPo religion reporter Michelle Boorstein disclosed the surprising news that the Democratic National Committee had disbanded the six-person religious outreach team that, under previous DNC chair Howard Dean, helped flip Congress to the Democrats in 2006. Dean’s successor Tim Kaine lamely insisted that religious outreach would get cranked up […]
Faith-based Answers
By Mark Silk — April 8, 2011
Can religion save America’s inner cities? On his blog over at the American Interest, Walter Russell Mead makes a plea that harks back to the last millennium, when Clintonian welfare reform was new under the sun and the Bush faith-based initiative but a glint in its progenitor’s eye. Mead, a liberal expert in foreign policy, […]
New Advisors for OFANP
By Mark Silk — February 7, 2011
Last Friday, the White House rolled out the first dozen names of those who will serve on the second iteration of the 25-member Advisory Council of the Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships (OFANP). Given that the last Council wrapped up its work a year ago, you wonder why not just wait for the full […]
Faith-based Stimulus!!!
By Mark Silk — December 3, 2010
OMG, Politico is reporting, in a front-of-the-site, top of the page story by Ben Smith and Brian Tau: “Obama’s stimulus pours millions into faith-based groups.” And some of those groups were pleased at the manna from heaven! Who knew? Thanks for toting it up, Politico. But let’s see what all that pouring has amounted to. […]
The OFANP Report
By Mark Silk — March 10, 2010
And the the Advisory Council of the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships completed their report and saw that it was good and presented it to the president. So what comes next? The recommendations range across a wide range of government departments, and include both highly specific programmatic suggestions and airy hopes for […]
Two Cheers for OFANP
By Mark Silk — February 11, 2010
Or at least its Advisory Council. A year in, Faith-Based 2.0 (aka the Office for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships) has come in for a fair amount of snarking, most notably from David Waters on WaPo’s Under God blog, but also from this corner. Because its mission has broadened to the point of fuzziness and its […]
Faith-Based Office: No Bully Pulpit
By Mark Silk — December 3, 2009
On November 9–that’s almost four weeks ago–the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships (OFANP) inaugurated a blog, whose initial post from Director Joshua DuBois announced: In the coming days, you can expect this blog to: Provide more information about the day-to-day work of the White House Office and Centers at Federal agencies; Highlight […]
Faith-based hiring freeze
By Mark Silk — September 16, 2009
Yesterday’s WaPo article by Carrie Johnson on the Obama administration’s approach to the contentious hiring issue for faith-based organizations (FBOs) receiving public funds tells you what you need to know–up to a point. To wit: It’s a really complicated issue, there are partisans on both sides, and the Justice Department has placed it firmly on […]
Obama’s faith-based advisers
By Mark Silk — September 11, 2009
Blogging from the Religion Newswriters Association meeting in Minneapolis, USA Today‘s Cathy Grossman reports some unhappiness on the part of members of the 25-member advisory board of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships (OFANP). They seem to feel a bit like window dressing, in the sense that they are not being given […]
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