Interfaith Council to advise Obama | February 10, 2009

WASHINGTON - President Obama yesterday established his own White House office to help religious organizations compete for federal grants and installed a young Boston minister as its leader, seeking to amend a Bush-era program that critics said violated the separation between religion and government and used federal money to advance an evangelical Christian agenda.

The president's executive order also established a 25-member interfaith council to advise him and Joshua DuBois, 26, the Boston University graduate with Cambridge roots as the executive director of the new office. The advisory council is also charged with promoting dialogue between religions in America and around the world.

At the annual National Prayer Breakfast yesterday, Obama told the assembled political and religious leaders that the new office "will not be to favor one religious group over another - or even religious organizations over secular organizations. It will simply be to work on behalf of those organizations that want to work on behalf of our communities."