Topics in the News: Faith-Based Organizations
Hillary Clinton on Welfare & Poverty
: Dec 1, 2007
Partner with faith based community in empowerment zones
Q: What leadership would you take to ensure that young people and Latino and Black communities not only have access to capital but to ensure that economic development is more inclusive of black and brown youth?A: In New York City we have seen the
transformation of Harlem from a combination of government action creating an empowerment zone, the private sector coming in to take advantage of that and an explosion of entrepreneurial dynamism. We've also seen the faith based community like
Abyssinians & others that have been partners with it and of course we've seen a lot of hip hop participants and leaders taking advantage of that. So we need this partnership. We need this partnership between the public and private sector and the
not-for-profit and faith-based sector. And we need to make sure that young people have a particular stake in what we are going to present. That's what I've worked on in NYC and in upstate NY and I intend to put that to work when I'm president.
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Source: 2007 Iowa Brown & Black Presidential Forum
Joe Biden on Welfare & Poverty
: Oct 25, 2007
No faith-based initiative; it ain't broke, so don't fix it
Biden expressed reservations about President Bush's faith-based initiative in 2001, commenting, "They say if it ain't broke, don't fix it, and I'm not sure we're not going to break something that's already fixed." In 2004, Biden co-sponsored the
Second Chance Act; the bill, which still hasn't passed in the Senate, would, among other things, provide $15 million in federal grants to community and faith-based groups that help former prison inmates.
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Source: The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life
Dennis Kucinich on Welfare & Poverty
: Oct 25, 2007
Funding faith-based initiatives with taxes is problematic
In 2003, Kucinich said he believes that funding faith-based initiatives with tax dollars can be problematic and that the strings attached to federal funds awarded to religious groups could encroach on the freedom of religion. Instead, he said, he sees
peace, health care, education and other matters of social welfare as "faith-based initiatives." Rather than giving money to religious groups, "the work of government ought to be advancing spiritual principles in our everyday life," he said.
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Source: The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life
Mike Gravel on Welfare & Poverty
: Oct 25, 2007
No position on faith-based initiatives
Gravel has not taken a position on faith-based initiatives, according to campaign press secretary Alex Colvin
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Source: The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life
Ron Paul on Welfare & Poverty
: Oct 25, 2007
Bush's faith-based initiative is "a neocon project"
In a 2003 statement, Paul derisively labeled Pres. Bush's faith-based initiative "a neocon project" that "repackages and expands the liberal notion of welfare." In 2001, he proposed legislation to "amend" the faith-based initiative by offering a tax
credit for private donations to faith-based organizations that provide social services. "Churches should not become entangled with government subsidies and programs because truly independent religious institutions are critical to a free society," he said
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Source: The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life
Chris Dodd on Welfare & Poverty
: Oct 25, 2007
Talk more about faith in the public sector
Dodd has said that "we've made a huge mistake" not talking about faith in the public sector and that "people confuse the notion of having faith-based policy and replacing policy with faith beliefs."
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Source: The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life
Barack Obama on Welfare & Poverty
: Aug 26, 2007
Engages people of faith on all aspects of his public service
Obama has a record of engaging people of faith on all aspects of his public service. His first job out of college was bringing churches together to help address the poorest Chicago neighborhoods' pressing problems. After Hurricane Katrina,
Obama united relief organizations and churches to discuss rebuilding the Gulf Coast. Obama also passed legislation that saved tithing from bankruptcy courts. In June of 2006, Obama delivered what a Washington Post columnist called perhaps the most
important speech on religion and politics in 40 years. Speaking before an evangelical audience, Senator Obama candidly discussed his own Christian faith and the need for a deeper, more substantive conversation about the role of faith in
American life.
In December of 2006, Obama joined Pastor Rick Warren to discuss moral leadership and Global AIDS. And in June of 2007, Obama challenged Americans to come together around a `Politics of Conscience' to move our nation forward.
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Source: Campaign website, BarackObama.com, "Resource Flyers"
Dennis Kucinich on Welfare & Poverty
: Aug 19, 2007
Separate state from church, not from spiritual values
Q: Do you believe that, through the power of prayer, disasters like Hurricane Katrina could have been prevented?A: I come from a spiritual insight which says that we have to have faith but also have good works. The founders meant to have separation of
church & state, but they never meant America to be separate from spiritual values. I'll bring strong spiritual values to the White House, and I'll bring values that value peace, social & economic justice, values that remember where I came from.
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Source: 2007 Democratic primary debate on "This Week"
Barack Obama on Welfare & Poverty
: Feb 15, 2007
Community organizer on Chicago's South Side
The 3 years Obama spent in Chicago as a community organizer served as a political apprenticeship. And a demanding challenge it was, one fraught with frustration and infrequent rewards but one that taught him firsthand the plight of America's inner cities
and the resilience of residents.Working with a tiny network of community activists and volunteers from South Side churches who were attempting to help residents improve conditions--and, often, simply cope--in deteriorating neighborhoods plagued by
sky-high unemployment & crime; where city services were slow at best; where parks were left untended & schools under-funded; where sometimes it seemed only those who couldn't afford to leave stayed; Obama did the same thing he would do when he later ran
for office: he knocked on doors and attended neighborhood meetings.
In 2007, when Obama announced for the presidency, he alluded to his years as a community organizer when he said, "I learned that meaningful change always begins at the grassroots."
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Source: Hopes and Dreams, by Steve Dougherty, p. 64-66
Mike Huckabee on Welfare & Poverty
: Jan 4, 2007
First Amendment never intended to shut out voices of faith
The First Amendment is often used illegitimately as a way to shut out the voice of faith in the public square when it was in fact intended to do the opposite. The first Amendment declares that "Congress shall pass no law which respects the establishment"
of a specific religion or prohibits the free exercise thereof. Essentially it can be defined in this simple summation: "Government is not to prohibit or prefer a particular religion or faith."
It is not the government's role, responsibility, or its right to prohibit the expression of one's faith. Those of us with faith know that government should guarantee that those expressions will not be prohibited.
At the same time, we should be warned that they will not be preferred over another in some official capacity.
The First Amendment was intended to ensure that the voice of government did not drown out the voices of faith.
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Source: From Hope to Higher Ground, by Mike Huckabee, p.154
Mike Huckabee on Welfare & Poverty
: Dec 1, 2006
Supports Charitable Choice for funding faith-based providers
Governor Huckabee is a leader in promoting family values:- Issued an executive order to state agencies recurring compliance with Charitable Choice, allowing faith-based providers access to government funds
- Led the effort to pass the nation's
third Covenant Marriage law
- Led the effort to pass "A Woman's Right to Know" legislation for women seeking abortion
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Source: PAC website, HopeForAmericaPac.org, "About"
Barack Obama on Welfare & Poverty
: Oct 1, 2006
Black churches minister to social needs out of necessity
It was in search of some practical application of [my mother's religious] values that I accepted work after college as a community organizer for a group of churches in Chicago that were trying to cope with joblessness, drugs, and hopelessness in their
midst. My work with the pastors and laypeople there deepened my resolve to lead a public life. I was drawn to the power of the African American religious tradition to spur social change. Out of necessity, the black church had to minister to the whole
person. Out of necessity, the black church rarely had the luxury of separating individual salvation from collective salvation .It had to serve as the center of the community's political, economic, and social as well as spiritual life; it understood in
an intimate way the biblical call to feed the hungry and clothe the naked and challenge powers and principalities. I was able to see faith as more than just a comfort to the weary; rather, it was an active, palpable agent in the world.
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Source: The Audacity of Hope, by Barack Obama, p.206-7
John McCain on Welfare & Poverty
: Jan 13, 2000
Anti-poverty shared by gov’t & faith-based orgs
McCain indicates his support for direct federal poverty aid through religious, community-based or other non-profit organizations. He says, “Welfare and anti-poverty assistance is a shared responsibility among federal, state and local government; the
private sector; community and faith-based organizations. Welfare policy must provide a strong safety net, while promoting work, responsibility, self sufficiency and dignity.”
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Source: Vote-Smart.org 2000 NPAT
Al Gore on Welfare & Poverty
: May 24, 1999
Supports volunteerism thru faith-based organizations
Americans’ volunteer work has doubled in 20 years, even as more women-the traditional mainstay of volunteer groups-have moved into the workplace. [Americans’] hunger for goodness manifests itself in a newly vigorous grassroots movement tied to non-profit
institutions, many of them faith-based & values-based organizations. I have seen the transformative power of faith-based approaches through the national coalition I have led to help people move from welfare to work-the Coalition to Sustain Success.
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Source: Speech on Faith-Based Organizations, Atlanta GA
Al Gore on Welfare & Poverty
: May 24, 1999
Faith-based organizations replace govt programs
People who work in faith- and values-based organizations are driven by their spiritual commitment. They have done what government can never do, [based on] compassionate care. Some political leaders have relied on well-intentioned volunteerism to feed the
hungry & house the homeless. [But to spiritual volunteers, the] client is not a number, but a child of God. And their solutions & programs are more likely to work because they are crafted by people actually living in the neighborhood they are serving.
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Source: Speech on Faith-Based Organizations, Atlanta GA
Al Gore on Welfare & Poverty
: May 24, 1999
“Charitable Choice:” Fed funds for church-based welfare
The 1996 welfare reform law contained a little-known provision called Charitable Choice. It allows faith-based organizations to provide basic welfare services, as long as there is a secular alternative, and as long as no one is required to participate in
religious observances. They can do so with public funds - without having to alter the religious character that is so often the key to their effectiveness. We should extend this approach to drug treatment, homelessness, & youth violence prevention.
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Source: Speech on Faith-Based Organizations, Atlanta GA
Barack Obama on Welfare & Poverty
: Aug 1, 1996
Inner city problems are the painful truths
South Side Chicago had never fully recovered from this racial upheaval. The stores and banks had left with their white customers, causing main thoroughfares to decompose. City services had declined. The boarded-up homes, the decaying storefronts, the
aging church rolls, kids from unknown families who swaggered down the streets - loud congregations of teenage boys, teenage girls feeding potato chips to crying toddlers, the discarded wrappers tumbling down the block - all of it whispered painful truths
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Source: Dreams from My Father, by Barack Obama, p.144