Baptist leaders applaud Advisory Council

From Jeff Huett of the BJC.

WASHINGTON — Religious leaders representing the Baptist denominations and groups that comprise the Baptist Joint Committee have joined to applaud the work of a 25-member advisory council created by the President to help the administration partner more effectively with private groups — including religious ones— that provide social services.

In an April 7 letter to President Barack Obama, BJC Executive Director J. Brent Walker explained that the BJC has long affirmed both of the First Amendment’s religion clauses — no establishment and free exercise. He then acknowledged the propriety “of government and religious organizations carefully cooperating in non-financial ways and, even financially, through a separately incorporated religiously affiliated organization, which does not proselytize, require religious worship or discriminate on the basis or religion in hiring.”

“All of this background is to suggest we think the Advisory Council has done a remarkable job in balancing these considerations, exercising a lot of common sense, and upholding constitutional principles that are so important to protecting religious liberty,” Walker wrote.

The Advisory Council approved 12 specific recommendations made by a task force charged with reforming the faith-based office to strengthen the constitutional and legal footing of public-private partnerships. Specifically, it urged clarifying the prohibited uses of direct financial assistance, providing guidance on the protection of religious identity while providing social services and assuring the religious liberty rights of clients and beneficiaries of federal social service funds.

Among the 15 Baptist executives endorsing the letter was Robert Appel, Executive Director of the Seventh Day Baptist General Conference.