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,…