\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nUnlike in the past, Obama’s Faith Council was allotted no
\nmoney to dispense so it was relieved of the political nightmare of accusations
\nof favoritism and could focus on policy questions.\u00a0 <\/span>The promise of this group lay in its diversity.\u00a0 <\/span>The idea being that if this group could
\ncome to some consensus on the important moral issues of the day that it would
\nhelp inform President Obama’s administration to enact policy that reflected, by
\nproxy, the religious wisdom of the vast majority of the American population.<\/p>\nUnfortunately, after a much-publicized announcement and
\nlaunch, the group has basically been silent.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Apparently the Council is working on a “report” to
\ngive to the President sometime next year on the various areas they have been
\nassigned to investigate.\u00a0 <\/span>This
\nseems like a classic blow off – “Yes, faith leaders, why don’t you go write a
\nreport.\u00a0 <\/span>I look forward to glancing
\nat it.”\u00a0<\/p>\nThe issues that need moral guidance are on the table now!\u00a0 <\/span>By its silence, the President’s Council
\non Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships is acquiescing to its own
\nirrelevancy.\u00a0 <\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Most Americans and policy makers have
\nassuredly forgotten the council exists – but not those of us who really
\nbelieved in the possibilities of the group.<\/p>\nThe ‘Urgency of Now’ includes finding a way to a health care
\nbill, address questions of unemployment and foreclosures, the wars in
\nAfghanistan and Iraq, torture and even balancing gay marriage with freedom of religion.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>The time will never be more
\nurgent for the Council’s moral voice on these questions. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Obama’s Council on Faith Based Partnerships has fallen off the map – and we need them back.\u00a0\u00a0 Nothing exemplifies the sad lack of contribution of this much hailed diverse group of religious leaders than the current impasse on Health Care with the Stupak Abortion amendment.\u00a0 Even before President Obama took office he was assembling a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-religion-in-the-public-square"],"yoast_head":"\n
Obama's Council on Faith Based Partnerships - Missing in Action When We Need It Most - Progressive Revival<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2009\/11\/obamas-council-on-faith-based.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Obama's Council on Faith Based Partnerships - Missing in Action When We Need It Most - Progressive Revival\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Obama’s Council on Faith Based Partnerships has fallen off the map – and we need them back.\u00a0\u00a0 Nothing exemplifies the sad lack of contribution of this much hailed diverse group of religious leaders than the current impasse on Health Care with the Stupak Abortion amendment.\u00a0 Even before President Obama took office he was assembling a…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2009\/11\/obamas-council-on-faith-based.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Progressive Revival\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-11-15T09:33:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Paul Raushenbush\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Obama's Council on Faith Based Partnerships - Missing in Action When We Need It Most - Progressive Revival","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2009\/11\/obamas-council-on-faith-based.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Obama's Council on Faith Based Partnerships - Missing in Action When We Need It Most - Progressive Revival","og_description":"Obama’s Council on Faith Based Partnerships has fallen off the map – and we need them back.\u00a0\u00a0 Nothing exemplifies the sad lack of contribution of this much hailed diverse group of religious leaders than the current impasse on Health Care with the Stupak Abortion amendment.\u00a0 Even before President Obama took office he was assembling a…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2009\/11\/obamas-council-on-faith-based.html","og_site_name":"Progressive Revival","article_published_time":"2009-11-15T09:33:22+00:00","author":"Paul Raushenbush","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2009\/11\/obamas-council-on-faith-based.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2009\/11\/obamas-council-on-faith-based.html","name":"Obama's Council on Faith Based Partnerships - Missing in Action When We Need It Most - Progressive Revival","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-11-15T09:33:22+00:00","dateModified":"2009-11-15T09:33:22+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/#\/schema\/person\/79cf4745abafd37be8b44cd0493ca805"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2009\/11\/obamas-council-on-faith-based.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2009\/11\/obamas-council-on-faith-based.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2009\/11\/obamas-council-on-faith-based.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Obama’s Council on Faith Based Partnerships – Missing in Action When We Need It Most"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/","name":"Progressive Revival","description":"Politics from the New Religious Progressives","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/#\/schema\/person\/79cf4745abafd37be8b44cd0493ca805","name":"Paul Raushenbush","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/8a4\/8a469b4689362184dbcd8bfb43296365x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/8a4\/8a469b4689362184dbcd8bfb43296365x96.jpg","caption":"Paul Raushenbush"},"description":"Rev. Paul B. Raushenbush is the moderator of the Progressive Revival blog and the Associate Dean of Religious Life at Princeton University. .An ordained American Baptist minister, Rev. Raushenbush speaks and preaches at colleges, churches and institutes around the country including the College of Preachers at the National Cathedral in Washington D.C., The Chautauqua Institute in upstate New York, and the New America Foundation. Rev. Raushenbush has served at Seattle First Baptist Church, the Presbyterian Chaplaincy at Columbia University and as College and Young Adult Minister at The Riverside Church in New York City. He has appeared on ABC World News Tonight and is a repeated guest on CNN. He has been quoted in The New York Times and The Washington Post and is a contributing editor for Beliefnet.com. His first book, Teen Spirit: One World, Many Faiths (HCI) was released in the Fall of 2004. He is the editor of the 100th Anniversary edition of Walter Rauschenbusch\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s book Christianity and the Social Crisis \u00e2\u20ac\u201c In the 21st Century (HarperOne). His work at Princeton includes strengthening the interfaith community on campus. He is the Co-Director of the Program on Religion, Diplomacy and International Relations at The Liechtenstein Institute on Self Determination at Princeton University. Rev. Raushenbush studied religion at Macalester College before attending Union Theological Seminary in New York City where he graduated with distinction.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/author\/praushenbush"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}