Obama Press Release: Statement of John DiIulio on Obama’s Council for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships

[Obama Campaign Press Release from July 1, 2008]

Statement of John DiIulio on Obama’s Council for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships

In 2001, DiIulio was the director of President Bush’s White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives

“Senator Barack Obama has offered a principled, prudent, and problem-solving vision for the future of community-serving partnerships involving religious nonprofit organizations. He has focused admirably on those groups that supply vital social services to people and communities in need. His plan reminds me of much that was best in both then Vice President Al Gore’s and then Texas Governor George W. Bush’s respective first speeches on the subject in 1999. Especially in urban America, all the empirical evidence continues to show that local faith-based organizations can make a measurable civic difference. His constitutionally sound and administratively feasible ideas about community-serving partnerships hold special promise for truly disadvantaged children, youth, and families. Many good community-serving initiatives can be built, expanded, or sustained on the common ground that Senator Obama has staked out for us here,” said John DiIulio.