(RNS) — Among the firehose of President Trump’s executive orders, you may have missed one issued late on Friday (Feb. 7) reestablishing Trump’s version of the White House’s 24-year-old religious outreach office and its branch offices in various federal departments. It’s worth examining, since the office encapsulates the story of religion and the American presidency in the 21st century.
What was initially called the White House Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives began as the incarnation of President George W. Bush’s theory of “compassionate conservatism,” which held that faith-based organizations can do a better job of helping people than secular ones, especially if the latter are governmental. The purpose of the office was to encourage FBOs to get into the game by clearing the way for them to obtain government funding for social services provision.
Before the attacks of 9/11, this faith-based initiative was the centerpiece of Bush’s presidency, and it was a magnet for criticism. The left didn’t like it because it mixed up church and state. The right didn’t like it because it threatened government regulation of religion.
Existing government-funded social service providers — including major FBOs such as Catholic Charities and Lutheran Family Services — didn’t like it because the Bush administration refused to push for increased social service budgets, which meant they would face more competition for the same scarce resources. The man tapped to lead the office, University of Pennsylvania Professor John DiIulio, ended up not liking it because he soon realized that Bush’s White House operatives considered it good only for political purposes. He resigned, calling them “Mayberry Machiavellis.”
The initiative’s central philosophical conundrum was that, on the one hand, the superiority of faith-based social service provision, in Bush’s view, came from the instilling of faith into service recipients; but, on the other, using taxpayer dollars to underwrite evangelization seemed like a clear violation of the establishment clause. The conundrum was never solved as, after 9/11, the faith-based initiative faded into the woodwork.
When Barack Obama assumed the presidency in 2009, he surprised a number of people by continuing the office, albeit amending its name to “Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships.” That hinted at his “all hands on deck” approach to social service provision, the idea being to join forces with existing providers, secular as well as religious, rather than pushing to shift resources toward the faith-based.
In addition, his executive order established an advisory board to recommend rules governing the presence of religion — worship, study, symbols, etc. — in facilities and programs run by faith-based providers. Among the most important was a requirement, instituted in 2010, that referrals to alternative providers be made “if the beneficiary objected to the religious character of the organization providing the services.” What the office did during the balance of Obama’s presidency was kept largely under the radar.
Trump did not act quickly to keep the office going after he arrived in the White House in 2017. When he finally got around to re-instituting it in May of 2018, the language of his executive order stayed close to the Bush language, as did the office’s name, now “Faith-based and Opportunity Initiatives.” Apparently “opportunity” expressed the Trumpian viewpoint better than “community.”
In the Trump 1.0 office, FBOs were relieved of the Obama referral requirement for beneficiaries who object to their religious character. Named to head the office was televangelist Paula White-Cain, Trump’s Jill-of-all-religious trades, though nothing suggested she intended to do the job full time.
Under Joe Biden, the office returned to the Democratic status quo ante. Back was the name: “Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships.” Back in charge was Melissa Rogers, the lawyer who captained Obama’s advisory council and then the office itself in the second Obama term. And back was the referral requirement regarding beneficiaries.
On the eve of Biden’s departure last month, Rogers told RNS’ Adelle Banks and Jack Jenkins that the office had been active in coordinating distribution of COVID-19 vaccines and developing antisemitism and anti-Islamophobia strategies. In typical Biden fashion, its light was hid under a bushel during the course of his presidency.
Which brings us to today.
White-Cain is back in charge, but the office is no longer merely about “faith-based” communities or neighborhoods, initiatives or partnerships. It’s “The White House Faith Office” (along with associated Centers for Faith in the federal departments). Take that, church-state separationists!
The new executive order does retain a bit of the old Bushian project of enabling religious institutions “to compete on a level playing field for grants, contracts, programs, and other Federal funding opportunities.” But the language is now “to strengthen American families, promote work and self-sufficiency, and protect religious liberty.”
As for compassionate conservatism — just spitballing here — I’m guessing the Faith Center over at the Department of Homeland Security won’t be doing anything to protect the religious liberty of FBOs to care for the needs of undocumented immigrants.
