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DiIulio claims that during their first meeting, Bush did not want to make faith initiatives a
public policy issue. Instead, Bush’s advisors pushed to have a faith program that was
policy oriented and evangelistic in tone.
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Therefore, the Office desired by Bush and
DiIulio during their first meeting, which consisted of bi-partisan ideology, did not work
its way into the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives that exists
today.
The “White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives” was not the
original name of the faith-based office. Originally, the office was to be named “Office of
Faith-Based Action,” signifying the religious undertone of the Office’s objective.
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The
name change to “Faith-Based and Community Initiatives” seems to undermine the
religious intent of the office. However, considering the original name of the Office, the
question arises how “community” focused the Office of Faith-Based and Community
Initiatives really is.
The original purpose of the White House OFBCI was to facilitate government and
faith-based relationships. Whether through acting as liaison to non-profit groups,
initiating domestic policy, or identifying barriers to faith-based groups, the OFBCI was
created to be the headquarters for faith-based research, expertise, and advice. However,
the name change of the Office was only one of many unfilled expectations of the Office.
First, though the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives was originally
a domestic priority issue for the Bush administration, its importance quickly crumbled.
Gary Gregg and Mark Rozell claim that the stagnation of activity within the OFBCI is
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DiIulio interview
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Dunn Tenpas, Kathryn 2002. “Can an Office Change a Country?” Prepared for the Pew Forum on
Religion and Public Life
Convention