At WaPo's God in Government blog, William Wan reports on the first official in-person meetings of the White House's Faith Advisory Council yesterday. On the agenda was one of the most hotly debated areas of the Council's mission: reforming the faith-based office itself.
The task force leader Melissa Rogers, director of Wake Forest's Center for Religion and Public Affairs, said her group is looking into issues like:
* what restrictions should be in place for funding to religious groups who help society but also do religious activities (e.g. group that feeds the poor but also holds bible study)
*protections of beneficiaries so that people of different faiths or even of no faith benefit equally from government's partnerships with religious groups.
*issues with 501(c)(3)'s and religious groups…a lot of churches are forming 501(c)(3)'s so they can partner with government to avoid separation issues.
As I posted earlier, Rogers' Task Force includes the Interfaith Alliance's Welton Gaddy, the Baptist Joint Committee's Brent Walker, and others.
