President Obama signed an executive order on Thursday to create a new White House office for faith-based programs and neighborhood partnerships, building upon the initiatives started by the Bush administration to administer social services to people “no matter their religious or political beliefs.”

“No matter how much money we invest or how sensibly we design our policies, the change that Americans are looking for will not come from government alone,” Mr. Obama said. “There is a force for good greater than government.”

In announcing the expansion of the White House faith office, Mr. Obama did not address one of the biggest questions surrounding the outreach: Can religious groups that receive federal money for social service programs hire only those who share their faith?



President Obama on Thursday announced the expansion of the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships, telling a gathering of religious and political leaders here that faith should not be “wielded as a tool to divide us from one another.”

“Instead of driving us apart, our varied beliefs can bring us together to feed the hungry and comfort the afflicted,” Mr. Obama said, “to make peace where there is strife and rebuild what has broken; to lift up those who have fallen on hard times.”

In an appearance before the National Prayer Breakfast, Mr. Obama called on believers of all faiths to set divisions aside “to lift up those who have fallen on hard times.” It is the first religious speech of his time in office, in which Mr. Obama echoed themes he spoke about frequently during his presidential campaign.

“No matter what we choose to believe, let us remember that there is no religion whose central tenet is hate,” Mr. Obama said, speaking to an audience of Republicans and Democrats and other leaders at the Washington Hilton hotel. “There is no God who condones taking the life of an innocent human being. This much we know.”





The appearance by Mr. Obama came a few hours before he was set to sign an executive order in the Oval Office to create the newly-revamped faith-based office created in the Bush administration. The executive order will call for a legal review of the office, aides said, before the president decides whether religious groups receiving federal money for social services can hire only those who share their faith.

The Bush administration said yes. During his presidential campaign, Mr. Obama said no.

“If you get a federal grant, you can’t use that grant money to proselytize to the people you help and you can’t discriminate against them – or against the people you hire – on the basis of their religion,” Mr. Obama said last July in an Ohio speech.

“Federal dollars that go directly to churches, temples and mosques can only be used on secular programs.”

Mr. Obama has signaled his intention to expand upon – and, in some cases, adjust – the faith-based practices from the Bush administration. The office will not only oversee the distribution of grants to religious and community groups, but will also look for other ways to involve those groups in working on pressing social problems.

Mr. Obama will name Joshua DuBois, a 26-year-old Pentecostal pastor and political strategist, to lead the new White House faith office. Mr. DuBois, who has worked for Mr. Obama since his time in the Senate, led the religious outreach during the presidential campaign.

“The goal of this office will not be to favor one religious group over another – or even religious groups over secular groups,” Mr. Obama told the audience at the National Prayer Breakfast. “It will simply be to work on behalf of those organizations that want to work on behalf of our communities, and to do so without blurring the line that our founders wisely drew between church and state.”