Obama's Faith Initiative

This morning at a prayer breakfast, President Obama is set to introduce a new 25-member President's Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships. The president will sign an executive order saying the new office must look for guidance from the Department of Justice on issues like “nondiscrimination laws”.

The program will be structured similar to the way the Bush program was structured and that may upset some on the left. The new 25-member advisory council to the office includes both religious and secular leaders.

Here are some of the people who will be named to it.

• Diane Baillargeon, president and CEO of Seedco
  
• Fred Davie, president of Public/Private Ventures
  
• Pastor Joel Hunter, Northland Church
  
• Vashti McKenzie, African Methodist Episcopal Church
  
• Frank Page, former president of the Southern Baptist Convention
  
• Eboo Patel, executive director, Interfaith Youth Core
  
• Melissa Rogers, professor of religion and public policy at Wake Forest University Divinity School.
  
• David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism
  
• Judith N. Vredenburgh, president and chief executive officer of Big Brothers Big Sisters