White House Partnerships with Faith-Based Organizations: What Should the New Administration Do?

Transcript

EJ DIONNE: We wrote the report because both of us believe that faith-based and secular community organizations are central to the work of charity and justice. We believe that discussion of this question should not come down to whether one was for or against President Bush. And we underscore that faith-based partnerships long predated the current administration and will long outlast the next one. President-elect Obama should not view this moment simply as an opportunity to pass judgment on a signature item of the Bush presidency, and we're glad he's made clear that he believes that government should partner with grassroots groups -- both faith-based and secular, as he put it -- because the challenges facing us -- again quoting the President-elect -- are simply too big for government to solve alone.

We wrote this report because we believe these partnerships should be -- I know this is an odd thought -- a unifying force in our public life and not a source of division. Progressives have always believed in empowerment and in the importance of grassroots groups. Our faith communities have so often served as a source of bottom-up power in our society, and as an inspiration for so much practical good work. So we would ask liberals and progressives to see these partnerships as very much part of their own -- if I may say so -- our own tradition. But those who worry about the impact of these partnerships on religious liberty and on religion itself should not be written off or condemned as enemies of religion. . . .Government cannot promote religion, let alone a single faith. Conversion is the task of the believer, not the task of government. We think that common ground can be found if each side in the arguments over faith-based partnerships would acknowledge the good will of the other -- that's really hard -- and if each tried harder to understand the core concerns of their opponents. That's also hard.

As we note in the report, some who support government partnerships with faith-based groups need to be more attentive to the legitimate concerns of those who believe there are risks to religious liberty and religion in these arrangements. Some who are concerned with church-state separation and religious liberty should be more mindful of the long and fruitful history of government partnerships with faith-based groups in pursuit of justice and compassion.

You could say that this report is rooted in three core ideas. Let us continue with faith-based partnerships. Let us be more careful about and attentive to church-state boundaries and religious liberty concerns. And let us make sure that grants given out under this program are given out in a way that is as fair and open as possible and as above reproach as possible.

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