EDITORIAL: Obama Will Expand 'Faith Based and Community Initiative'. What About McCain?

Obama's announcement he will expand the "Faith Based and Community Initiative" may represent his greatest effort, at least thus far, to reach out to alienated Catholic voters.

CHESAPEAKE, VA (Catholic Online) - In a turn of events which signals the beginning of an aggressive outreach to faith based voters, Senator Barack Obama announced that he not only supports the "Faith Based and Community Initiative",but that he will expand it's reach if he is elected President.

Further, the Democratic candidate indicated that he will support the constitutional right of faith based groups to choose whom they hire and fire based upon the tenets of their deeply held religious convictions.

Many of the Press Reports concerning this stunning announcement have referred to this endorsement of such a significant Policy initiative as a matter of the Democratic candidate for President somehow "reaching out to evangelical voters".

However, this may be much more. It may represent the greatest effort of the Obama campaign, at least thus far, to reach out to Catholic voters.

The candidate has a serious problem with Catholics who accept the clear, infallibly declared, unbroken teaching of the Catholic Church that every procured abortion is the taking of an innocent human life, period!

Though Senator Obama has recently referred to abortion as a serious "moral concern", he has not backed off his unqualified acceptance of the current approach precipitated by the US Supreme Court's decision in Roe v Wade and its progeny, which legalized abortion throughout the entire nine months of pregnancy, for any reason.

That is absolutely unacceptable. Concern for the poor must begin with protecting the lives of those who have no voice, our youngest neighbors in the first home of the whole human race, their mother's womb.

The candidates' highly publicized meeting with thirty Christian leaders several weeks ago did little to alleviate the growing opposition within the Catholic community to his candidacy because of his support of this so called "abortion right".

The subsequent announcement that two social justice oriented evangelical Protestant ministers, Rev. Tony Campolo and Rev. Jim Wallis, will try to persuade the candidate to somehow temper his advocacy on this fundamental human rights issue has not even been mentioned in most Catholic circles.

However, Catholics adamantly refuse to accept the sometimes bigoted argument, too often leveled against all those who are Pro-life, that they are "single issue" voters because they call abortion a fundamental human rights issue.

Rather, they insist, and properly so, that they embrace the entire teaching of the Catholic Church that every human person, from conception to natural death, has a right to life.

That right to life includes the recognition that every human person has that same human dignity at every stage of their life. This understanding includes the recognition that we have obligations in solidarity to care for one another.

In other words, we are "our brother's (and sister's) keeper".

This important announcement from Senator Obama's campaign of his support for the Faith Based and Community Initiative came during a campaign visit to one of the many examples of its success.

Central Presbyterian Church operates a food bank which assists the hungry and a thrift store which clothes the needy.It also sponsors an outreach to at risk youth, helping them to turn their lives around by breaking the destructive cycles and behaviors which so often accompany family brokenness.

All of this good work is done through its non profit Eastside Community Ministry in Zanesville, Ohio. Eastside is one of the many efforts, all over the United States, which are an integral part of the faith based and community initiative's effort to enlist what were so often called the "armies of compassion" in the early years of the Bush administration.

In this recently announced Policy initiative, Catholics should recognize the application of the Social teaching of their Church.

Among the principles found within that teaching are the obligations we have in solidarity for one another and our call to have a "love of preference" for the poor. Finally, the policy demonstrates an application of the principle of subsidiarity, a social ordering principle which affirms that governance is best when it is exercised by the groups closest to those in need.

Faith based and local community associations are an example of the mediating institutions which can and should participate in good governance.

Much of the philosophical framework for this Policy initiative term was advanced by a key Catholic leader in the first term of the Bush Administration, Jim Towey. Mr. Towey served as the Director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives from 2002 to 2006. He is now the President of a Catholic College, Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, Pa.

In an editorial in the Washington Post on June 28, 2008, Towey, who is a Pro- Life and Pro-Poor faithful Catholic Christian, and a Democrat, noted "Since no one has asked the candidates these important questions, I will." He followed this observation with several insightful and important questions to both candidates.

His goal was to draw the candidates out so that voters could discern which one of them would keep the program. We now set those questions forth in full below:

"Will you keep open the 11 faith-based offices that President Bush established in government, including the one in the White House?

These offices play critical roles in helping religious charities fight discrimination. In Sioux Falls, S.D., they helped a Catholic soup kitchen that risked losing federal funding because organizers led a voluntary prayer. Paul Revere's Old North Church couldn't receive a "Save America's Treasures" grant until President Bush's change in policy.

The Seattle Hebrew Academy received disaster relief money to recover from an earthquake after the White House pushed a policy change to ensure that the school was treated the same as any other school. Without these offices, none of this would have happened.

Will you rescind President Bush's executive order mandating equal treatment of faith-based organizations by the federal government?

Previously, religious charities faced discrimination if they had, say, a cross on a wall, an all-Jewish board of directors or a Bible verse on a brochure. When Congress blocked legislation to end such discrimination, federal faith-based offices shepherded 13 regulations through seven agencies that helped faith-based charities compete on a level playing field. What will you do with these regulations and the executive order?

Will you expand the Bush pilot project allowing addicts to choose their own treatment program?

Before George W. Bush's presidency, addicts nationwide were forced to use the same treatment providers even if they had repeatedly failed with them. In states where the new Access to Recovery program is operational, addicts can choose a faith-based approach to recovery. Will you support more programs that allow choice?

Do you support the right of faith-based charities to hire on a religious basis without forfeiting federal funds?

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and a later Supreme Court case permit religious groups to hire on the basis of faith. An Orthodox Jewish organization, after all, could not maintain its identity if it were forced to hire Southern Baptists or atheists.

If these same groups want federal funding to support their good works, however, they face a maze of contradictory rules. In the case of some poverty-fighting programs, Congress prohibits religious hiring; yet with others, such hiring is expressly permitted. This has led to a logjam of social welfare legislation in need of reauthorization. How will you break this impasse?

Will you promote competitiveness so that the best provider of social services -- be it sacred or secular -- prevails?

Those who advocate on behalf of huge government anti-poverty programs often focus on increasing the levels of spending instead of achieving results. Powerful lobbies and resistant congressional committees have thwarted attempts to focus on outcomes. Take Head Start, the government's multibillion-dollar early-childhood initiative.

President Bush tried to build accountability and to tie funding to outcomes rather than follow the well-traveled path of perpetual funding. He lost, and so did many qualified faith-based programs that remain spectators because of the stranglehold that current grantees have on funding; 95 cents of every Head Start dollar goes to secular providers.

Does this seem fair to you? If not, what will you do about it?"

In concluding his editorial, Towey than made a final observation, what should be considered by all Catholics, other Christians, and other people of faith and good will as we proceed into the General Election campaign for the Presidency of the United States:

"Talking about God on the campaign trail might appear faith-friendly, but it is no substitute for articulating a sound policy position on this critical initiative. As our economy frays, this strong new thread in our social safety net must be preserved. The next president needs to get specific."

Catholic Online is committed to engaging both candidates on the issues which matter most during this vital Presidential campaign.

We share Jim Towey's concern.

We want to hear specific policy proposals which will demonstrate each candidates committments to those issues which matter most to Catholics.

Concern for the poor in our midst is not a matter being "liberal" or "conservative" to Catholics, but a matter of being human.

Utilizing the mediating associations in our National self governance,including the faith based and community based mediating associations,is not only an application of the principle of subsidiarity but it is good Public Policy.

Mr. Towey, who has the credibility to ask those questions, has now challenged both candidates.

Senator Barack Obama has responded. We hope to see even more specifics in the days ahead from his campaign. He should be commended for having responded.He is getting specific, at least on these issues concerning the Faith Based and Community Initiative.

We now call on Senator John McCain to do the same.

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