Obama Picks Joshua DuBois to Head Faith-Based Giving

Salon: DuBois, a political strategist who was religious affairs director in the Obama campaign, will head the President's Council for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, a senior administration official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the announcement had not yet been made by Obama.

Obama said during the campaign that he wanted to expand White House faith-based efforts begun under former President George W. Bush.

But while he endorsed Bush's initiative to give religious groups more equal footing when getting federal funding, he also promised to tweak it.

He has changed the name of the White House effort from its original Office of Faith-based Initiatives to display a broader focus. Obama has promised to increase spending on social services, increase training for charities applying for funding and make that a grass-roots effort, and to elevate the program's status within the White House.

Obama in Zanesville Ohio

Update: Of course, Obama's program has already been distorted, dissected and leaves me wondering why he bothers. 

After his discussion on a faith-based program, Obama answered questions from reporters in Zanesville, Ohio. 

Someone asked about his position on gay marriage. Obama said he's against the Defense Against Marriage Act, but supports gay civil unions. 
A reporter asked about whether Wesley Clark should apologize to McCain. Obama asked why that would be a top priority of his. Good one. The media needs to get over it. Clark was right. 

He said he'd be happy to talk about Iraq and that he didn't think Clark's "inartful" statements about John McCain were keeping Ohioans up at night.
Obama's plan:

As president, Barack Obama will establish a new President's Council for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships within the White House. The Council will work to engage faith-based organizations and help them abide by the principles that federal funds cannot be used to proselytize, that they should not discriminate in providing their services, and they should be held to the same standards of accountability as other federal grant recipients. The Council will:

Train the Trainers to enable local faith-based organizations to learn best practices, grant-making procedures and service delivery so that they can better apply for and use federal dollars.Partner with State and Local Offices so that federal efforts build on successes made at the state and local level.

Hold Recipients Responsible by conducting rigorous performance evaluation, researching what works well and disseminating best practices.

Close the Summer Learning Gap by focusing faith-based and community-based efforts on summer learning programs for 1 million children.

More details