ZANESVILLE, Ohio — Sen. Barack Obama, seeking to reach out to religious voters, proposed strengthening the White House program assisting faith-based social service organization on Tuesday while insisting those groups not discriminate against aid recipients or aid workers.
Obama’s proposal for a $500-million-a-year Council for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships would also create 1 million new slots for summer jobs and education programs.
“I’m not saying that faith-based groups are an alternative to government or secular nonprofits, and I’m not saying that they’re somehow better at lifting people up,” Obama said after touring the Eastside Community Ministry. “What I’m saying is that we all have to work together — Christian and Jew, Hindu and Muslim, believer and nonbeliever alike — to meet the challenges of the 21st century.”
In Zanesville, Obama did not shy away from professing his beliefs.
“I didn’t grow up in a particularly religious household,” he said. “But my experience in Chicago showed me how faith and values could be an anchor in my life. And in time, I came to see my faith as being both a personal commitment to Christ and a commitment to my community, that while I could sit in church and pray all I want, I wouldn’t be fulfilling God’s will unless I went out and did the Lord’s work.”
President Bush proposed federal aid to religious groups in his 2000 presidential campaign. But his faith-based initiative has been mired in controversy. Its first director, John DiIulio, quit the White House and alleged the administration was stocked with “Mayberry Machiavellis” more interested in politics than policy.
Another program director, David Kuo, wrote a scathing tell-all book recounting how Bush’s Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives was used to advance political objectives.
Even most critics, however, note that the program has increased the number of faith-based groups winning access to federal dollars and lifted what in some cases were discriminatory policies against religious groups.
Obama aides say the current program simply has not worked. Funding hasn’t reached the levels Bush promised, and the program, Obama contends, has been too bureaucratic.
Those aides said an Obama administration would get tougher on groups that discriminate in hiring practices and in doling out assistance. The groups would have to abide by federal hiring laws that reject discrimination based on race, sex, and religion. Obama said he supports federal legislation that would extend those protections to sexual orientation as well, a flash point with some religious organizations.
Under the Obama proposal, the groups could use federal funds only to assist anyone in need, not anyone from a certain background or religion. Nor could federal funds be used to proselytize or spread religious beliefs.
“This is about providing equal treatment, but not special treatment,” an Obama aide said.
