Does Faith-Based Council Have a Future Beyond Obama?

By William Wan

One of the most interesting questions that came up during yesterday's inaugural face-to-face meeting of Obama's faith-based council was about the future of the council and what happens after they're done their work.

The council, a new entity, was setup by Obama to come up with ways faith groups and government can work together on issues ranging from climate change to fatherless families and present its recommendations to Obama by next year. But what happens to it after that is unknown.

Yesterday, one of the council's 25 members, Peg Chemberlin, president-elect of the National Council of Churches USA, asked whether one of the council's many tasks should be to codify exactly what the council is and how presidents in the future might pick its members and commission their work. [Chemberlin contacted me and clarified her suggestion was that the taskforce's work could include reviewing the council's role and making suggestions about the criteria that might be helpful to the council appointments in the future. ]

That discussion would fall under council's six broad taskforces, specifically the one in charge of figuring out reforms and guidelines that should be setup for the President's Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Melissa Rogers, the council member in charge of that taskforce, said it was worthwhile suggestion that her group would look into.

(Some background on the council: President George W. Bush established what was then called the Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives - as one of his first initiatives after taking office in 2001. The goal was to strengthen government partnerships with FBOs (faith-based organizations). When Obama took office, he renamed the office and established an advisory council for the office, drawing from a wide spectrum of leaders from religious, nonprofit, service organizations.)

As the council continued its work this morning, it tackled the two issues of fatherhood and interfaith cooperation. On the fatherhood side, taskforce members said they're focusing on the regional townhall meetings on to encourage active and responsible fatherhood that Obama is planning to launch across the country. They hope to make recommendations to Obama on crafting a message and ways to get organizations and fathers to take concrete steps after the townhalls.

On the interfaith issue, the taskforce said it would focus on helping to stage interfaith service projects that diverse religious groups can work on across countries and also on an interfaith role in foreign diplomacy.

By William Wan  |  July 9, 2009; 12:21 PM ET  | Category:  God in Government Save & Share:                 
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