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On Wednesday, December 20, I sat down with a small circle of American religious leaders to talk with President-elect George W. Bush. He flew us into Austin, Texas, to talk with him for about one and a half hours about how his administration can strengthen the contribution of faith-based organizations (FBOs) in overcoming poverty in America. In light of all we have been doing in Evangelicals for Social Action and all I said in Just Generosity: A New Vision for Overcoming Poverty in America to promote an expanded role for FBOs, I was obviously delighted to be present.

The group included folk as diverse as Marvin Olasky and Jim Wallis, the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and a Muslim Imam. The Washington Post wrongly announced the day before that the meeting was only for African-American pastors and was designed as an end run around the older "civil-rights" leaders. There were a large number of African-American leaders there (Floyd Flake, John Perkins, Tony Evans, Bishop Charles Blake), but almost two-thirds of the group were white or Latino. President Bush brought his chief of staff Andrew Card, a key domestic policy advisor, former Indianapolis mayor Stephen Goldsmith, and his top speech writer, Michael Gerson.

Often, during the campaign, Bush promised to place great emphasis on FBOs if he became President. The fact that he decided to devote the first of a series of policy-focused meetings with key leaders on different topics to the issue of FBOs' overcoming poverty demonstrates that Bush intends to make this a high priority early in his new administration. Even after his chief of staff announced that the President-elect needed to leave for another meeting to announce a cabinet appointee, Bush stayed another fifteen minutes to continue the conversation.

I came away from the meeting strengthened in my sense that the next President genuinely understands the power of the spiritual transformation that FBOs can nurture. He talked about "poverty of the wallet and poverty of the soul," noting that government can and should work at education and health care, but that it cannot heal people's hearts. With a passion that was striking, he asked us what he needs to do to show that he listens to other voices than just "white guy Republicans."

In the one-page briefing paper that I handed him (along with a copy of Just Generosity), I listed a couple basic assumptions. To reduce poverty, (a) we need both moral/spiritual renewal and greater economic opportunity, and (b) we must simultaneously work for stronger, wholesome two-parent families and make sure those who do work full time responsibly get well out of poverty and can afford health insurance.

Then I offered several specific suggestions, including tax credits for donations to non-profits working to overcome poverty; major expansion of Charitable Choice; and several legislative items that would both expand the income of the working poor and also include a marriage incentiveﾗi.e., the specific things I outlined in my last E-Pistle (which conveniently appeared as an Op.Ed. in The Dallas Morning News the day before the meeting with Bush). And of course I asked him to use his Presidential "pulpit" to tell everyone that expanding the role of FBOs does not eliminate the crucial need for effective government anti-poverty programs.

Does all of this make any difference? Only the future will tell. Every President faces so many contradictory pressures. Libertarians will push Bush to use the talk about FBOs as mere window dressing. But we did have a brief opportunity to share some good ideas. Speaking for Call to Renewal (there were six Call leaders at the meeting), Jim Wallis urged the President-elect to promise in his Inaugural Address to announce the goal of reducing child poverty by 50 percent in the next four years. Bush's chief of staff, Andrew Card, was sitting next to me, so I handed him a copy of my proposals. Bush told several of us to talk to his speech writer, Mike Gerson (a Wheaton College grad) who indicated he would be glad to stay in touch.

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December (Web-only) 2000, Vol. 44