Bush adviser speaks on initiatives
By JOE TROMBELLO
News Writer
Jim Towey, deputy assistant to President Bush and director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, emphasized the importance of these initiatives while delivering the keynote speech for the Center for the Study of Latino Religion's symposium "Faith at Work in the Latino Community" in the McKenna Hall Auditorium.
"In many of our neighborhoods, faith based initiatives are the only game in town," Towey said. "If you exclude them, you are going to have a totally different social services delivery system that won't be as effective."
Towey's keynote address, "The Role of Faith in the Public Square: Stories of Mother Teresa and President Bush," centered around his experiences working with Mother Teresa and Bush, his volunteering at organizations aimed at assisting the poor, and his comments on the Bush administration's view of the role of faith-based initiatives.
"The problems in our culture are not one law away from being addressed," he said. "Our problem is that there aren't enough places where people are welcomed into places for the poor. When you encounter people in their poverty, you discover your own poverty."
Towey, a self-described "Pro-Life Democrat," served for 12 years as legal counsel to Mother Teresa and spent time volunteering in her home in Washington D.C. for people with AIDS. He served as legislative director and legal counsel for retired Republican Sen. Mark Hatfield, as well as working in former Florida Gov. Lawton Chiles' cabinet. Towey said that his experiences working with the poor and the sick taught him much about his own life as a formerly "disgruntled Catholic."
"The poor have a gift to give. They are some of the most powerful people on earth — they have the power to change your life," he said.
Towey said that faith-based initiatives are able to do what government cannot: reach out to people in need on an individual and personal basis.
"President Bush's initiative is seeking to unleash armies of [faith-based organizations] in our country, where faith-based initiatives can do what they do best: to enter into relationships with other people," Towey said. "Government cannot love; faith-based organizations can love."
Towey's address was sponsored by the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Institute for Latino Studies and the Center for the Study of Latino Religion. The larger symposium celebrated the inauguration of the Center for the Study of Latino Religion at the Institute for Latino Studies and featured lectures and panel discussions on the importance of religion to Latino youth and on recent research findings with respect to Latino religious life.
Towey was the inaugural speaker in an ongoing lecture series that the Center for the Study of Latino Religion plans to sponsor.
All News Stories for Tuesday, January 28, 2003
