President Barack Obama today renewed the US government's partnership with religious community-service organisations, pledging government assistance to private groups he said are closer than most "to what's happening on our streets and in our neighbourhoods".
The White House office of faith-based and neighbourhood partnerships continues an effort by George Bush to send taxpayer dollars to religious groups that work on the ground to offer job training, counselling and other services to poor and struggling families and individuals.
In brief remarks during today's national prayer breakfast, former British prime minister Tony Blair said religion is under attack from both sides, "corroded by extremists who use their faith as a means of excluding the other" and also assailed by non-believers.
"The extreme believers and aggressive non-believers come together in an unholy alliance," Blair said.
He told Obama: "Should it ever be tested, I hope your faith can sustain you and your family. The public eye is not always the most congenial."
Obama, a devout Christian since his early 20s, told the audience at the breakfast that religion motivates people to charity, but stressed that secular groups too aid people in need, and the government must also facilitate their efforts.
"Instead of driving us apart, our varied beliefs can bring us together to feed the hungry and comfort the afflicted; to make peace where there is strife and rebuild what has broken; to lift up those who have fallen on hard times," he said at the Washington Hilton.
"This is not only our call as people of faith, but our duty as citizens of America, and it will be the purpose of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighbourhood Partnerships."
The breakfast was the largest gathering of international dignitaries of Obama's young presidency. In addition to Blair, in attendance were the presidents of Haiti and the Philippines and the prime ministers of Albania, Macedonia and Mauritius. A contingent of US senators and representatives were also there.
Obama was dogged throughout the campaign with alternate charges that he was a secret Muslim or an adherent of a radical black-nationalist Christian faction. But today he spoke candidly about being reared in a household without a traditional religious practice.
"I had a father who was born a Muslim but became an atheist, grandparents who were non-practicing Methodists and Baptists, and a mother who was sceptical of organised religion, even as she was the kindest, most spiritual person I've ever known," he said.
"She was the one who taught me as a child to love, and to understand, and to do unto others as I would want done."
Obama seemed to take pains to distinguish his effort from Bush's, noting that secular groups would also be covered under the office. "The goal of this office will not be to favour one religious group over another – or even religious groups over secular groups," he said.
"It will simply be to work on behalf of those organisations 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."
President Bush created the office early on in his presidency, fulfilling a campaign promise to further integrate religious life into the government. The office was immediately criticised as an unconstitutional encroachment of religion into public life and an effort by Bush to appease religious conservatives who supported his candidacy.
The office will be headed by Joshua Dubois, who spearheaded Obama's religious outreach efforts during his campaign.
Tax dollars sent to faith-based social service groups will be used for secular purposes, not for evangelism. Obama pledged during the campaign to allow taxpayer-funded religious institutions to hire and fire based on religion but only for the activities run on private funding.