How successful has the faith-based initiative been?
In some ways, it’s still too early to measure the complete success of the faith-based initiative. On the legislative front, I think it has been somewhat of a failure. There were grand plans legislatively, and most of them fell apart for a variety of reasons. The bill that’s currently in Congress, which has passed the House but has yet to get through the Senate, is a very, very stripped and much weaker version of what the president first envisioned, and then second, what the House Republicans created, which are two very distinctly different things. So on the legislative front, I’d say it has not been a success. I think the greatest success, and the one that I think a lot of people have missed, is in the executive branch. The president has been able to do a lot through his power as the head of the executive branch to promote his faith-based initiative. The second executive order on the faith-based initiative created faith-based centers in five departments of the U.S. government. Later, a
