From the White House Blog:
"Instead of driving us apart, our very beliefs can bring us together," President Obama said yesterday at the National Prayer Breakfast.
E pluribus unum, in other words.
After the breakfast he announced an executive order establishing the new White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, and talked about the role faith-based and secular community organizations will play in our economic recovery.
"People trust them. Communities rely on them. And we will help them," he said.
The President named Joshua DuBois to lead the office, and also announced the creation of the President’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships -- a group of 25 religious and secular leaders, listed below.
"Whether it's connecting groups that are training people to do new jobs, or figuring out the role of faith-based organizations in combating global climate change, this office creates those partnerships in a way that's responsible, constitutional, and -- bottom line -- helps those in need," DuBois said.
Bruce- A little background on Mr. DuBois:
First became involved in political activism as a Boston University student in the wake of the Amadou Diallo controversy. DuBois graduated cum laude from BU in 2003 with a bachelor's degree in political science. From BU, he went to Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, where he earned a master's degree in public affairs in 2005. Meanwhile, he worked as an aide to Representative Rush D. Holt, Jr., and was a fellow in the office of Representative Charles B. Rangel. After watching Barack Obama's speech to the 2004 Democratic National Convention on television, DuBois decided he wanted to work for Obama, then a candidate for the U.S. Senate. Eventually, Obama hired him as a Senate aide. In 2008, DuBois was religious affairs director for the Obama presidential campaign.
