god bless you barack obama

for me, one of the more offensive initiatives of the bush administration was the amp up of the office of faith based initiatives. (this project actually started during the clinton administration, but was not as prominent.) first, the name was misleading. it should have been called "the office of christian initiatives with a few grants to jews just so it doesn't look like we're discriminating." (i actually heard that they were considering that, but the acronym wouldn't fit on the letterhead!) second, it is well documented that federal money was given almost exclusively to christian groups and those groups used federal dollars to proselytize and hire only people from their particular faith traditions. all this, and the bush administration turned a blind eye.

today, at the national prayer breakfast, president obama announced that the office of faith based initiatives would continue in his administration, but with changes. the name has changed to the office of faith-based and neighborhood partnerships. more importantly, the justice department will review any cases in which there is a question regarding the separation of church and state. also, he named an advisory board, including both religious and secular members, to oversee the program.

this is great, but there's still work to be done. at first glance, it seems that only judeo-christian traditions are represented on the board. now obama did say that he wasn't done stocking the board so one can only hope that a wide variety of groups ultimately will be represented.