The Rev. Franklin Graham

The Rev. Franklin Graham, president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, told reporters in St. Louis Friday that he was afraid that elements of President Barack Obama’s version of the Faith-Based Initiative, announced by the White House Thursday, would “weaken the entire initiative.”

Graham was speaking specifically about one of the thorniest issues facing Obama’s new faith-based office, renamed the White House Office for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships: whether the new administration will restrict religious groups that receive government funding from hiring only those who share their faith. During the presidential campaign, Obama said religious groups that receive federal money could not “discriminate…against the people you hire on the basis of their religion.”

At a lunch in downtown St. Louis Friday to announce a Christian rock and hip-hop festival to take place under the Arch this summer, the Post-Dispatch asked Graham about Obama’s version of the faith-based initiative,…

President George W. Bush winks before speaking at the United Nations, Thursday, Nov. 13, 2008. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Hot off the Associated Press: President Bush spoke on faith this morning at a United Nations conference “designed to bridge differences between religions and cultures.”

It would be interesting to hear more about how and why his faith has sustained him. Kind of like saying Jesus is your favorite philosopher…sounds good but doesn’t say much. I’ve been rooting around the Internet but haven’t found anything.

Don’t know what to do with that wink, though. I’ll assume he’s getting the speck out of his own eye.

Update: here’s the full text of President Bush’s address to the UN. I found it to be a decent brief exposition of public/civil religion.

(1) The English newspaper The Independent thinks President George W. Bush is contemplating becoming a Catholic.

(2) Democratic candidate Barack Obama scolded absentee fathers on Sunday, Father’s Day. According to the NYTimes, Mr. Obama noted that

“more than half of all black children live in single-parent households,” a number that he said had doubled since his own childhood……”

(3) Meanwhile, black pro-life advocates will be protesting outside the upcoming Cincinnati, Ohio annual NAACP meeting. Rev. Clenard Childress, a New Jersey pastor, said

“Because 2008 is an election year, the presidential candidates will undoubtedly speak at the convention. This gives us a national stage to make our case to the American people, as a whole, as well as the convention delegates.”

The NYTimes published an article A Life of Quality: Harriet McBryde Johnson:

“…..What many saw when they looked at her was a scrawny woman with a twisted spine who got around with a power wheelchair and lots…