From Capitol Hill

Keeping The Faith

By Eleanor Clift

Along with the Iraq War and his efforts to democratize the Middle East, President Bush will be remembered for bringing a more open embrace of religion into his administration. He campaigned on a promise to forge a partnership between government and religious organizations that deliver social services, and in his first week as president, created the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives.

If the Founding Fathers were around, the president might have to explain why this overt introduction of religion didn’t overstep the line they drew between church and state. In any event, the faith-based initiative that is Bush’s signature project has withstood legal challenges and is now well established in the government with offices in a dozen departments and agencies, including Justice, Homeland Security, and Health and Human Services.

It is perhaps Bush’s proudest domestic achievement, and one that he would like to see extended regardless of who follows him as president. Bob Tuttle, a professor of law at George Washington University, says, “It’s safe to say none of the candidates would be devoted to it as a personal issue the way Bush has, but it’s hard to see the political advantage in abolishing the faith-based initiative. I’m not sure they’d want to take that on.”

All the candidates have made comments about keeping the office in some form. Barack Obama has been the most direct, saying during a televised forum on religion in April that he would preserve the office and focus it more on reducing poverty. John McCain and Hillary Clinton have said they support federal funding of faith-based social services, but haven’t said specifically whether they would keep the office in the White House.

The next president will have enough to do without the added controversy of dismantling an initiative that’s popular with constituency groups. Still, without the personal commitment Bush brought, Tuttle cautions, “Lots of things in Washington die a slow, quiet death,”

The reviews of the office and its accomplishments are mixed. It has succeeded in breaking down the barriers to government contracting, but has been vulnerable to lawsuits for failing to stress to those who participate that federal funds cannot be used to evangelize. It will fall to the next president, especially if it’s a Democrat, to clarify an issue the Bush administration deliberately left vague, which is whether government money can be used for social services that have a religious content.

Critics on the progressive side of politics and religion say the office has failed on two counts. One, it never connected to a policy agenda, which is why John Dilulio, its first director and guiding inspiration, left within six months, complaining he was never welcome in policy discussions. He was asked to preside over volunteer efforts as though charity could solve poverty. Secondly, grants were too often awarded to political friends, turning the office into another arm of patronage.

Politics is part of life in Washington, and that won’t change with the election. If a Democrat is president would push to do more in terms of policy while a President McCain, who has tense relations with evangelicals in his party, might decide to bolster the office as a way to reassure an important constituency.

An early clue will be the fate of the monthly “compassion and action forums” held in the Old Executive Office Building next to the White House. “Every month we lift up a new human need,” said Jay Hein, head of the faith-based office, who cites recent forums focused on high-school dropouts, prisoner re-entry, human trafficking, and rebuilding New Orleans. All worthy dialogues, and like chicken soup, meeting and talking can’t hurt.

But even now, the office has been losing its steam as the administration winds down. Hein’s predecessor Jim Towey, the former attorney for Mother Teresa, had a much closer relationship with the president and in fact Hein’s official title, deputy assistant to the President of the United States is one rung lower than Towey’s level.

Bush had the vision. Sustaining and shaping that vision will be up to the next president.

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Eleanor Clift is a contributing editor for Newsweek magazine. Her column, “Capitol Letter” is posted each week on Newsweek.com and MSNBC. She is a regular political panelist on the nationally syndicated show The McLaughlin Group, which she has compared to “a televised food fight.” She is also a political contributor for the Fox News Channel.