Devotionals For President Obama By the Former White House Faith Based Office Head Criticized

The publication this week of Joshua Dubois, The President's Devotional, has created something of a controversy.  Dubois is former head of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, and the book is a compilation of 365 of the short Daily Devotionals (each including a Bible passage and prayer) that Dubois sent to President Obama each morning. Obama has said he found the devotional messages meaningful. Time Magazine this week says:

Sending the president a daily Christian reflection is not part of the White House Faith-Based director’s job description, and the devotional is already receiving pushback. “It seems quite inappropriate for the faith-based director to be composing prayers and Bible lessons on the government dime,” Maggie Garrett, legislative director for Americans United, says. “And it is especially true when there was really important work to be done, such as reforming the faith-based initiative rules.”

But spirituality is big business in America, and that type of criticism does not concern Dubois. He says he had the idea for the book about six months before he left the White House, but the actual compiling started after he left. He explains that while he did spend about an hour to an hour and a half every day writing the emails while he worked in the White House, he always did so on his own time. “I definitely did it before work or on the weekends and stuff like that,” he explains, clarifying that he usually sent them from his personal and not White House email address.