Presumed Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama reportedly wants to expand the Bush administration's faith-based social programs.
Campaign aids says Obama is will officially announce his plan during a speech Tuesday in Zanesville, Ohio.
Besides supporting President George W. Bush's initiative to steer federal social service dollars to religious groups, Obama reportedly also plans to support -- to a limited extent -- the ability of such religious groups to hire and fire based on faith.
Obama's announcement is part of a series of events leading up to Friday's Fourth of July holiday that are focused on American values.
But Tuesday's planned announcement seemed destined to draw heavy criticism from Democrats and others vehemently opposed to the idea.
Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, says such programs undermine civil rights and civil liberties.
"I am disappointed that any presidential candidate would want to continue a failed policy of the Bush administration," he said. "It ought to be shut down, not continued."
Obama does not support requiring religious tests for recipients of aid nor using federal money to proselytize, according to a campaign fact sheet.
He only supports letting religious institutions hire and fire based on faith in the non-taxypayer funded portions of their activities, said a senior adviser to the campaign, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Bush has supported broader freedoms for taxpayer-funded religious charities. But he never got Congress to go along so he has conducted the program through administrative actions and executive orders.
David Kuo, a conservative Christian who was deputy director of Bush's Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives until 2003 and later became a critic of Bush's commitment to the cause, said Obama's position on hiring has the potential to be a major "Sister Souljah moment" for his campaign.
This is a reference to Bill Clinton's accusation in his 1992 presidential campaign that the hip hop artist incited violence against whites. Because Clinton said this before a black audience, it fed into an image of him as a bold politician who was willing to take risks and refused to pander.
"This is a massive deal," said Kuo, who is not an Obama adviser or supporter but was contacted by the campaign to review the new plan.
Obama proposes to elevate the program to a "moral centre" of his administration, by renaming it the Council for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, and changing training from occasional huge conferences to empowering larger religious charities to mentor smaller ones in their communities.
Saying social service spending has been shortchanged under Bush, he also proposes a $500-million a year program to provide summer learning for one million poor children to help close achievement gaps with white and wealthier students.
A campaign fact sheet said he would pay for it by better managing surplus federal properties, reducing growth in the federal travel budget and streamlining the federal procurement process.
Like Bush, Obama was arguing that religious organizations can and should play a bigger role in serving the poor and meeting other social needs.
But while Bush argued that the strength of religious charities lies primarily in shared religious identity between workers and recipients, Obama was to tout the benefits of their "bottom-up" approach.
"Because they're so close to the people, they're well-placed to offer help," according to a text of his speech released in advance.
