In other words, support provided to faith based organizations will be handled on a case by case basis –but in consultation with a Justice Department reshaped by Obama with personalities that make pro-life organizations nervous.
Critics believe that such a process of consultation will lead to a system that only funds religious organizations if they have ideological similarities with the president's agenda.
In a statement following the appointment of DuBois, Donohue said that “those who walk in the middle of the street risk getting run over by cars on both sides. We know what President Obama wants—he said during the campaign that religious organizations that receive federal monies should not have the right to determine who works for them. But now he’s preoccupied with issues of a more urgent matter. Thus, the balk.
“Sending requests on a case by case basis to lawyers to examine the constitutional questions is a ruse: We already know what the law says. The 1964 Civil Rights Act, in Section 702 (a), specifically allows an exemption for religious organizations in hiring. The legislators who passed this historic act knew that for the government to deny religious organizations that receive public monies the right to determine who should service its constituents would effectively neuter them. That position is as true today as it was then.
“It was also announced today that this office will expand its domain by working with the National Security Council ‘to foster interfaith dialogue with leaders and scholars around the world.’ Bunk. What in the world does servicing the poor and promoting responsible fatherhood—two of the four priorities outlined by DuBois—have to do with having the National Security Council sit down with Ahmadinejad for a chat? This is just another way to gut faith-based initiatives."
Other experts believe that Obama's approach to his Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships will not only be prone to bias, but also lead to dangerous social consequences.
Speaking about groups with longstanding government grants or contracts, such as the Salvation Army and Catholic Charities, that take religion into account in hiring, Dr. Carlson-Thies, director of social policy for the Center for Public Justice told the Christian Science Monitor that “maybe in an economic crisis, when calling for all hands on deck, it’s not the best thing to pass a ban and discover the fallout later.”