Government bureaucracy can’t “fix” America, but the nation’s people can, President Bush told 1,000-plus leaders of faith-based and community groups gathered in Washington to network with each other and hear from various government leaders.
WASHINGTON (BP) – Government bureaucracy can’t “fix” America, but the nation’s people can, President Bush told 1,000-plus leaders of faith-based and community groups gathered in Washington to network with each other and hear from various government leaders.
“Groups like yours have harnessed a power that no government bureaucracy can match,” Bush said. “So when I came to Washington, my goal was to ensure that government made you a full partner in our efforts to serve those in need. The results have been uplifting, and that’s what we’re here to talk about today.”
Bush was joined by cabinet members and other government leaders at the June 26-27 meeting of public- and private-sector leaders at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington. The White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives hosted the national conference which included about 200 small group workshops as well as several bipartisan plenary sessions.
The event served as a “pep talk,” said Karl Ragan, a specialist in disaster relief for the Southern Baptist Convention’s North American Mission Board. “The entire administration is looking ahead toward the next administration,” Ragan said. “They wanted the faith-based groups to show strength and solidarity behind the faith-based initiatives going into the next administration.”
Ragan said even though the event included more than just faith-based groups, “I was impressed with the number of high-level government officials who were openly displaying their faith. I really wasn’t expecting that; it was kind of neat.
“Our president quoted Scripture correctly, not out of context,” Ragan continued. “This was totally unscripted. It seemed like he was speaking from the heart…. There were others sitting around who commented on the president’s passion for this [faith-based and community initiatives] and his faith.”
Bush received several standing ovations during his 15-minute talk, especially after quoting Scripture, Ragan added.
Ragan also represented Southern Baptists at a networking session limited to the nation’s 15 largest faith-based and community entities.
“Southern Baptists are a major player in disaster relief, and they particularly asked us to be there,” Ragan said of the session at the Army Navy Club in Washington that provided another opportunity for people in disaster relief to get to know each other better so they could work together more easily during a disaster.
The national conference –- its exact title was White House Faith-Based and Community Initiatives Conference on Innovations in Effective Compassion -– was among a series of gatherings of leaders of faith-based and community initiatives entities that take place at least every other month, a White House spokesperson said.
In May, for example, a Mississippi disaster relief leader was called on by the White House to explain the Southern Baptist strategy for response efforts in the wake of disasters.
Don Gann, a 20-year veteran of disaster relief efforts -– the last five as a consultant (associate director) with Mississippi Baptist Convention Board’s men’s ministries -– was one of eight people asked to speak May 19 at a three-hour roundtable called by the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives as part of a “Compassion in Action” series.
About 100 people from a variety of public and private sectors involved in disaster preparedness and response listened to the four-person “response and recovery strategies” panel and to a four-person “partnerships in emergency preparedness” panel. Also, Terry Henderson, national director of the SBC’s disaster relief thrust at the North American Mission Board, was among those invited to be in the audience.
“This was the first one they’ve ever done [on disaster relief],” Henderson said. “It was a kind of a beginning…. I thought this was a good meeting to bring the different government agencies to understand more what volunteer agencies bring to a disaster.”
Michael Chertoff, secretary of Homeland Security, made specific mention of the impact of Southern Baptist response in Mississippi and Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina, Henderson said.
Gann said he was chosen to speak because he was part of the initial response to Katrina in Mississippi. During the five minutes he was allotted, he explained that Southern Baptist response is rooted in the response of local churches.
“Our first thing to do was to try to keep those churches going, to support them and prop them up,” Gann recounted. “In our response [during disaster relief efforts], we wanted people to say, ‘This church helped me.’
“I talked about the partnership between the North American Mission Board and the state conventions,” Gann said. “I really believe the only way you can partner is if you don’t lose your identity. For example, the Red Cross — they know what we’re doing, that we’re sharing the Gospel and ministering in the name of Christ as we serve. They know that and they don’t ask us to not do that, and that’s why we can partner with them.”
The White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives launched the Compassion in Action roundtable series in January 2007 to facilitate discussion among policymakers, government officials, philanthropists and faith-based and community service providers, said Rebecca Neale, a White House FBCI spokesperson.
“The roundtables underscore the critical and increasing role of faith-based and community organizations in disaster preparedness, response and recovery,” Neale said.
The Department of Homeland Security’s Center for FBCI was the lead agency for the May 19 roundtable.
John Kim Cook, director of the FBCI, noted, “From the Department of Homeland Security perspective, the whole idea was to bring together people who were interested in emergency preparedness, response and recovery, and display and highlight some of the best practices across the country, and of course the SBC was one of the shining examples in disaster relief.
“Southern Baptist Disaster Relief has more than 80,000 trained volunteers, over 2,000 chaplains and 1,500 mobile units that are often deployed in times of disaster. It’s a massive effort,” Cook said.
“But it’s not about numbers,” he continued. “It’s about working effectively with federal, state and local emergency management officials as well as VOAD [Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster], a private-sector, nonprofit organization for effective response to people in need during and following a disaster, and that’s also something Southern Baptists do very well.”
Also invited to be part of the May roundtable were such disaster response and recovery organizations as Volunteer Florida, Volunteer Mobile and Operation HOPE and, for emergency preparedness, Interfaith Ministries for Greater Houston, Convoy of Hope, Christian Emergency Network and Secure Community Network.