I recently wrote about the Fate of Bush's Faith-Based Initiative, and President Obama has answered with an Executive Order continuing Bush's Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives (FBCI) as the Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships (FBNP). The change would seem to be in name only, as it does not mention the odious EO 13279 which was the primary flaw in the agency.
No organization should be discriminated against on the basis of religion or religious belief in the administration or distribution of Federal financial assistance under social service programs
Hence, organizations such as those detailed in this diary, which promote horrible public policy, continue to flourish.
Faith-Based Executive
Without a congressional appropriation, we are left with an executive that may spend money unconstitutionally. This is not something to be taken lightly. While it was called "Charitable Choice" when President Clinton did it, Obama has kept the "Faith-Based" language. Neither phrase hides the fact that this office is unfunded and possibly unconstitutional.
Obama's order gets the priorities of the constitution disturbingly backwards:
It is critical that the Federal Government strengthen the ability of such organizations and other nonprofit providers in our neighborhoods to deliver services effectively in partnership with Federal, State, and local governments and with other private organizations, while preserving our fundamental constitutional commitments guaranteeing the equal protection of the laws and the free exercise of religion and forbidding the establishment of religion.
Forbidding establishment is the first clause of the first amendment, free exercise the second, and equal protection is a later amendment altogether. In a speech, this woud be a rhetorical distinction. But in an executive order, the wording is legally important. What this arrangement of priorities means is that the provision to allow those that wish to influence public policy or public health with their religious beliefs is more important than the prohibition on the federal government being involved with religion. This is not substantially different from Bush's FBCI, so I condemn it in the same terms.
But what can be done about that? When Obama's order was announced, the Christian Science Monitor got its introduction at the conclusion:
Now that it's clear that both Democratic and Republican administrations support a partnership between the government and faith-based groups, it's time to outline that relationship in Congress, with legislation.
But the problem only truly begins there. As I said in my previous piece:
The Congress has never authorized the FBCI, nor appropriated funds for it. It exists only by executive order of the decider.
Summary
This "White House Office" is unsupported because the Congress will have difficulty in appropriating such an agency. The difficulties are both constitutional and political. However, when the new President has essentially blessed the very same agency, what is to be done? Can I reasonably expect the Congress to address this? As with many religious issues, no one will touch it for fear of political repercussions.