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Final Faith-Based Advisory Council Report Submitted To White House

By Howard M. Friedman

Yesterday, President Obama's Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships presented its final report to administration officials. According to IPA:

Over the course of the day, the Council presented its recommendations in key policy areas to senior officials who deal with each of those areas, including: Secretary of Health & Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, USAID Director Raj Shah, White House Domestics Policy Director Melody Barnes, National Security Council Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, and EPA Director Lisa Jackson.

The group concluded the day in a meeting with President Obama who appreciated the Council members? service and hard work in forging common ground across religious, political and philosophical lines.

The text of the report was released in advance last month, (see prior posting), as was information on two issues on which the Advisory Council was divided-- whether religious symbols can be present in areas where government-funded programs are offered and whether churches need to form separate corporations to receive federal social service funds (see prior posting). Council Member Melissa Rogers writes at length on the report in yesterday's Washington Post. Meanwhile a coalition of 26 religious and civil rights groups-- the Coalition Against Religious Discrimination-- wrote the President recommending that he adopt the consensus recommendations on reform of the Faith-Based Office, that religious-based hiring in federally funded social service programs be prohibited, and that houses of worship be required to create separate corporations if they seek to provide secular government funded social services.

Full post as published by Religion Clause on March 10, 2010 (boomark / email).