Friday, January 2, 2009

Obama's transition team meets with progressive religious groups

Obama's transition team has held over a dozen meetings with religious groups to help shape the new administration's policy agenda. These meetings, containing high-level staffers, are used to solicit ideas on many issues like domestic poverty, peace in the Middle East, and the formation of the Council of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, Obama's version of Bush's faith-based initiatives office. Obama's religious outreach director, Joshua DuBois, wrote:
The Obama-Biden transition team is working with a range of religious and secular community groups to solicit their views on the transition process and or agenda going forward ...
While those groups invited to these discussions have tended to be left-leaning, the Obama transition team is seeking a fuller dialogue to hear all sides of the issues. That doesn't mean, however, that everyone is getting a seat at the table. Those groups apparently still waiting for a call for their input? Conservative advocacy groups for the Family Research Council and the Southern Baptist Convention. Crickets.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

No religious group should have a seat at any government table. Period.

Drew said...

Having a seat at the table is one thing, legislating religious principals is another. As I understood it, the Obama team is just soliciting their advice. No violations of church and state here. In fact, in the article, a church-state group was cool with the idea.

Anonymous said...

Haven't read the story but I have no problem with religious groups giving input to government. Religion is a reality in our (and any) society. Government officials can't stick their heads in the sand on an issue important to a large number of Americans. That being said, I agree with Drew. Advice is okay but the whole Bush pseudo-theocracy not so much.