California Interfaith Power & Light, the originator of the Interfaith Power & Light movement that began in 2000, works to mobilize faith communities in response to global warming. The organization has affiliates in more than 40 states and is based in San Francisco. Susan Stephenson is executive director.

Read a Jan. 26, 2010, essay on the Web site of Christianity Today in which Stanley Carlson-Thies reflects on George W. Bush’s faith-based initiatives.

Read a post from Jan. 8, 2010, by sociologist Mark Chaves at the Faith & Leadership site of Duke Divinity School. Chaves summarizes his research, based on the National Congregations Study, showing that federal faith-based initiatives have had little or no impact on houses or worship and religious social service organizations, or on the delivery of social […]

Read a Feb. 3, 2010, Washington Post story timed for the first anniversary of Obama’s announcement that he was revamping the faith-based office. The story details concerns among faith leaders.

Read a Feb. 4, 2010, story in The Wall Street Journal that discusses Obama’s decision to allow religious groups that receive taxpayer dollars to discriminate to some extent in hiring.

Read a Feb. 5, 2010, post at ReligionDispatches.org, which rounds up the criticisms of church-state groups such as the Coalition Against Religious Discrimination.

Read a Feb. 5, 2010, blog post by Rob Boston of Americans United for Separation of Church and State titled about Obama’s faith-based initiative. It includes a link to an op-ed by Americans United executive director Barry Lynn outlining the concerns of religious liberty advocates.

A Feb. 19, 2010, post by Cornell law professor Steven H. Shiffrin at the ReligiousLeftLaw blog argues that liberals should give religious groups more leeway in obtaining federal funding, in part because social service faith groups have been receiving such funds for more than 70 years with few problems.

Joshua DuBois, former head of the Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships, defended and detailed the work of the faith-based office in this Feb. 3, 2010, blog post on the official Web site of the OFBNP.