WASHINGTON — After a year’s
work, a White House advisory council on faith-based programs adopted dozens of
recommendations Feb. 26 on everything from church-state separation to fighting
poverty and promoting fatherhood.
The 25-member advisory
council also called for reforms to the White House Office of Faith-based and
Neighborhood Partnerships to help protect “religious liberty rights.”
“The recommendations call
… for greater clarity in the church-state guidance given to social service
providers so that tax funds are used appropriately and providers are not
confused or sued,” the panel’s report said.
“The recommendations also
insist that beneficiaries must be notified of their religious liberty rights,
including their rights to alternative providers.”
The advisory panel, which
will submit its final report on March 9, also urged the Obama administration to
ensure that “decisions about government grants are made on the merits of
proposals, not on political or religious considerations.”
Among the panel’s 64
recommendations, advisers voiced support for:
- developing interfaith
service projects on 500 U.S. college campuses and in 40 U.S. cities
- working to correct the “deeply
flawed” ways the federal government measures poverty to better respond to the
needy who aren’t currently eligible for social services
- increased federal funding
for programs to promote fatherhood, including among fathers in the military and
in prison
- limiting the Pentagon’s role
in development work
- providing guidance to state
and local governments to help nonprofit groups “retrofit and green” their
buildings.
The advisers reached consensus
on most recommendations but were divided over two contentious issues: whether
houses of worship that receive direct federal funding for social service
programs should form separate nonprofit corporations; and whether
federally-funded religious charities should remove religious art, symbols or
messages in facilities used to provide social services.