Faith-Based

President Obama has tapped a 26-year-old Pentecostal minister who worked on his campaign to manage his re-conceptualized office of faith-based initiatives, now titled the Council for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, the New York Times reports. I'll be very curious to see how this turns out. I have a long-standing interest in how faith and public service interact as a matter of philosophy. But also from an efficacy standpoint, it remains to be seen how effective such an office can really be, as Brian Friel and Paul Singer explored ($, but if you email me, I'll send you the story) in National Journal in 2007.