God in Government: Faith-Based Panel's Mission Includes Poverty, Climate Change, Abortion

Faith-Based Panel's Mission Includes Poverty, Climate Change, Abortion

By William Wan

The council created to advise President Obama on faith-based issues held its first official meetings via a conference call this afternoon. Over the course of an hour, the 25-member advisory council outlined its broad mission--to find ways faith groups and government can work together on issues ranging from climate change to fatherless families to abortion rates--and a timeline to make recommendations for Obama to address those problems.

Obama has divided the council into six task forces representing his priorities for the Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Each task force gave a short presentation on their initial direction:

* help ease poverty
* support responsible fatherhood
* bolster interfaith efforts
* reform the faith-based office
* address climate change
* help global poverty
(although it doesn't have its own task force the council overall is also charged with finding common ground from which to reduce teenage pregnancies and abortions)

Here's a summary of what each group talked about as well as an overall timeline at the bottom of what the council plans to get done this year:

REFORM OF FAITH-BASED OFFICE
Those working on the overlapping realms of faith and policy are particularly interested in this group. Some council members themselves wanted to clarify whether the group would be tackling the burning issue of hiring among religious groups receiving government funding. Joshua DuBois, Obama's director of the faith-based office, reemphasized what's been reported in recent weeks, that the justice department would be the main ones tackling the issue.

Other things the task force is doing:
*Gathering materials like executive orders, regulations, powerpoints and agency booklets during the previous administration concerning legal standing of faith-based groups.
*Talking with Agencies like HHS, Justice Department, HUD, US AID
*Considering publishing booklets to religious service providers that detail a uniform legal policy across government agencies
*Reviewing regulations for federally funded groups on separation of service activities from religious activities (rules addressing things like whether such groups can retain a religious name or religious mission statement, etc.)

ECONOMIC RECOVERY
*Improving access and awareness of benefits (like like food stamps, income tax credit) among the needy
*Talking with officials in Ohio about their model for benefits access
*Looking at issues like poverty safety nets, housing, etc.
*Looking for existing poverty efforts around the country for new practices and innovative approaches.
*Considering a special designation for faith-based groups like the one that already exist for minority businesses, which give such businesses advantages in contracting

FATHERHOOD AND HEALTHY FAMILIES
Task force is considering:
*Messages the president and government can send about the importance of fathers in the lives of children
*A campaign highlighting fathers who are carrying out that responsibility.
*Domestic violence issues and the importance of men holding other men accountable for violence in families and communities
*Looking for specific, achievable goals like identifying 10,000 new male mentors over a specific time period.
*Developing an oral history project on fatherhood in cooperation with groups like the Smithsonian, NPR, HBO and Ad council. Program would feature ordinary people as well as celebrities talking about how important their father was
*Military families with deployed parents

CLIMATE CHANGE AND ENVIRONMENT
* How government can help congregations and faith groups do environmental work
*Retrofitting and greening houses of worship
*Environmental literacy, providing factual info as well as moral justification
*Creation of green jobs
*Ways to make sure the poor and developing countries aren't hurt or left behind during greening process

GLOBAL POVERTY AND DEVELOPMENT
*Importance of foreign aid not just going from government to government, but to civil society institutions as well (churches, mosques, temples, universities, etc.)
*Warning against trend of money increasingly going to government contractors and professional in-and-out orgs rather than faith and grassroots groups.
*Helping the U.S. government make a case to Americans about the strategic value of foreign aid

INTERRELIGION AND COOPERATION
*Promoting interfaith cooperation by serving together on initiatives like ending malaria, etc.
*Faith groups partnering to help with foreign diplomacy
*Engagement with the Muslim and Islamic world

REDUCING TEEN PREGNANCY AND ABORTION
*Looking for areas of common grounds
*May not agree on everything in the end, but now coming up with a dozen or so initiatives where there may be common ground

Timeline going forward for the council:
*Phone conferences every month.
*First in-person meeting of council in July, which is open to public, at which each task force will identify 2-3 areas to focus on
*Meeting in October, where each task force will present draft of recommendations
*Meeting in February for final report and recommendations.
*frequent phone conferences among task forces in the meantime

By William Wan | June 4, 2009; 4:06 PM ET | Category: God in Government Save & Share:
Previous: Catholic Activist Named to HHS Faith-Based Office | Next: Guns OK in This Church

Comments

Please report offensive comments below.

If one truly understands technical support, and spiritual/emotional support, the idea/principle is the same. It's the provider helping customer, who is incapable to handling their own problems/emotional state problem, to maintain the equipment/mind to/at certain working state.

It's arrogance and ignorance make people not understanding these interconnectedness, feeling offensive or devalued by technical information unconsciously.

Oh, for the ones, who thinks there is God, may God takes care them. For the ones, who think there is no God, may the nature take care of them. In all, time will take care everything.

The divine human spirit says: "The torch bearer for humanity are the ones who make the best use of the short segment of time they have for one's self and the people around them. It is these people carry the symphony of humanity forward. These rest are just noise."

Reader, may you become part of the symphony of divine human spirit, not the noise!

Posted by: lifelonglearnerthomas | June 7, 2009 8:26 PM
Report Offensive Comment

It's arrogance and ignorance make people not understanding these interconnectedness, feeling offensive or devalued by technical information unconsciously.

Oh, for the ones, who thinks there is God, may God takes care them. For the ones, who think there is no God, may the nature take care of them. In all, time will take care everything.

Reader, may you become part of the symphony of divine human spirit, not the noise!

Posted by: lifelonglearnerthomas | June 7, 2009 8:15 PM
Report Offensive Comment

It's arrogance and ignorance make people not understanding these interconnectedness, feeling offensive or devalued by technical information unconsciously.

Oh, for the ones, who thinks there is God, may God takes care them. For the ones, who think there is no God, may the nature take care of them. In all, time will take care everything.

Reader, may you become part of the symphony of divine human spirit, not the noise!

Posted by: lifelonglearnerthomas | June 7, 2009 8:13 PM
Report Offensive Comment

For a bit of levity, I'm amused by the term 'Religious Service Providers.' Imagine the tech support:

"I can't connect!"

'Are you properly grounded?'

"It says, 'Hit Any Key to enter, I can't find the 'Any' key... I have the best and only interface, it must have an any key!"

'That's hit *any* Key...'

"Well, I paid for it, and my cup-holder runneth over."

Posted by: Paganplace | June 5, 2009 3:28 PM
Report Offensive Comment

I love these age old arguments over the faith and law. Men still build monumental idols to worship the memory of failure and success. These verses are Biblical and logical presenting the fatal effects of trusting in false gods. JOH 8:17 It is also written in your law, that the testimony of two men is true.
ROM 2:12 For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law;
JOH 10:34 Jesus answered them, is it not written in your law, I said, ye are gods?
ROM 3:19 Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before god.
ROM 3:20 Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
ROM 3:28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.
ROM 3:31 Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.
ROM 4:15 Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression.
ROM 5:13 ( for until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.
ROM 6:15 What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.
ROM 7:7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, thou shalt not covet.

Posted by: hillhopper | June 5, 2009 3:01 AM
Report Offensive Comment

Among many issues, humanity is stuck with an question/answer
that no one truly can prove/duplicate repeatedly to the other among
different religious and none religious minds, where is this (Life and
the universe) come from? The person, who can begin to tackle this
issue, must be a non religious and non atheist; capable of stepping
"behind" the minds of all humans and realize only the power of the
divine human spirit can attempt to change poisoned minds and hearts.
Here is one tool I found, The Mind and Soul Duster. It's intend to
lead all humans to consciously realize what makes them capable and
what went wrong in the process of growing up. Hope people will feel its
value as I felt.
________________________
THE MIND AND SOUL DUSTER
Warning: First time users may experience shock or uncomfortable feelings

Mind collects knowledge
Knowledge becomes capability
Capability creates achievement
Achievement increases pride, gratification and confidence
Misused pride, gratification and confidence are called arrogance
Arrogance makes a person’s attitudes hostile toward others
Arrogance blocks a person in becoming greater intellectually and spiritually

Soul comprises greed and empathy
Greed cares only for self
Empathy concerns others
Excessive use of greed makes the soul selfish
Excessive use of empathy makes the soul overly generous
Balanced use of greed and empathy allows the soul normality
Excessive use of arrogance and greed can make the mind and soul evil

Unconsciously, arrogance and greed increase in every person
Recognize and dust off the arrogance and excessive greed in your mind and soul
Do not let arrogance and excessive greed drive you to harm yourself, your loved ones or others

A longing whisper from the divine human spirit deep within yourself, your beloved and everyone else

Posted by: lifelonglearnerthomas | June 5, 2009 1:09 AM
Report Offensive Comment

The comments to this entry are closed.

Posts By Category

Posts By Date

Faith-Based Panel's Mission Includes Poverty, Climate Change, Abortion

Comments