Baylor University Hires Bush's Faith-Based Czar

Baylor University announced yesterday that Bush's Faith-Based Czar - Jay Hein - had been hired as Distinguished Senior Fellow and director of the Program for Faith and Service at Baylor's Institute for Studies of Religion (ISR).

Here's a blurb from the press release:

In this capacity, Hein will lead ISR's effort in promoting cutting-edge approaches to social problems through faith-based organizations.

"I cannot think of place better positioned to be a global leader not only in generating new ideas about the development and launch of new faith based approaches to need, but ISR is already recognized as a national leader in promoting, supporting and conducting empirical research on the efficacy of faith-based initiatives, and joining the team was an obvious next step," Hein said. "That is why I am so excited to join Baylor."

Before joining Baylor, Hein was deputy assistant to President George W. Bush and director of the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives from August 2006 until September 2008. In this role, Hein worked to implement President Bush's compassion agenda by engaging public-private partnerships with faith- and community-based social service organizations across the United States and around the globe.

The Press Release continues to state that "during his tenure in the White House, Jay Hein brought enormous leadership, credibility and stability to the faith-based initiative."

From a Baptist perspective, it's slightly disturbing to see the PR department of a Baptist University promote the Faith-Based Initiative. Just sayin. But then again, when it comes to the faith-based initiative, Baylor University has been very much at the center of things.