June 4, 2009
Faith-Based Panel's Mission Includes Poverty, Climate Change, Abortion
by William Wan
The Washington Post
The council created to advise President Obama on faith-based issues held its first official meetings via a conference call this afternoon. Over the course of an hour, the 25-member advisory council outlined its broad mission--to find ways faith groups and government can work together on issues ranging from climate change to fatherless families to abortion rates--and a timeline to make recommendations for Obama to address those problems.
Obama has divided the council into six task forces representing his priorities for the Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Each task force gave a short presentation on their initial direction:
* help ease poverty
* support responsible fatherhood
* bolster interfaith efforts
* reform the faith-based office
* address climate change
* help global poverty
(although it doesn't have its own task force the council overall is also charged with finding common ground from which to reduce teenage pregnancies and abortions)
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