ohn DiIulio, the University of Pennsylvania professor who headed President Bush's controversial White House Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives, is stepping down according to reports in the Washington Post newspaper and Cox News Service.

   DiIulio, a Democrat, is resigning after seven months of controversy. During this time, however, legislation to enable greater funding for religious groups operating faith-based social program has cleared the House of Representatives; and yesterday, the administration released a report titled "The Unlevel Playing Field" compiled under DiIulio's guidance, which claims to uncover widespread bias within federal departments against providing grants to churches, synagogues and other sectarian groups in order to fund community services. In addition, he helped promote legislation opening 10 government cabinet-level operating budgets to religious organizations -- a stipulation added to H.R. 76, the Community Solutions Act, passed by lawmakers in the House, and now pending in the Senate.

   The 43-year old DiIulio was "regularly frustrated by the politics of Washington" according to an Associated Press report, and tired of the regular commute to the nation's capital from his home in Philadelphia. He often locked horns with both liberals who feared that his expansive vision for funding religious programs violated civil rights statutes and the separation of church and state, as well as some conservatives who said that DiIulio was not going far enough in promoting the spiritual, God-centered aspects of church programs. Responding to some religious right critics who raised concerns over whether federal funds would lead to regulation of houses of worship, DiIulio sternly remarked: "Predominantly white, exurban, evangelical and national parachurch leaders should be careful not to presume to speak for any persons other than themselves and their own churches."

   As head of the White House office, DiIulio proposed a number of projects which critics charged would have upset the already precarious balance between church and state in America. He worked closely with John P. Waters, Bush's new drug enforcement czar, to encourage a greater role for religion-based drug and alcohol rehab programs, as well as expanding the involvement of prison ministries in the nation's criminal justice system. DiIulio also proposed that public money be used for bricks-and-mortar style repairs and upkeep costs for inner city religious facilities that participated in government-funded programs.

   "When those buildings crumble," DiIulio told an April gather of a group known as Partners for Sacred Places, "when the deferred maintenance catches up, the preschool and the prison ministry and the day-care center and the after-school latchkey learning program ... crumble and go away, too."

   DiIulio criticized those Americans who were, as he put it, "behind the curve in thinking of our older religious properties as civic assets."

   Reaction to DiIulio's departure was mixed. "I think John is a fine professor and students will benefit from having him back in the classroom," said Marvin Olasky, the University of Texas journalism professor who is considered the architect of the Bush initiative. An early critic of DiIulio's strategy of making concessions in order to attract Democratic support, Olasky told the Washington Post cryptically, "It's a way of saying he's a good teacher."

   Senator Joseph Lieberman (D-Connecticut) said he was disappointed by DiIulio's resignation. Lieberman is described as the Democratic point man in promoting some kind of faith-based funding initiative, and is expected to introduce his own compromise legislation when H.R. 7 is taken up next month by the Senate. "John's been a great advocate," said a spokesman for Lieberman's office.

   DiIulio is the first high-level Bush appointee to leave his post. He was paid $140,000 per year as Director of the White House Office. Cox news service reports that while he has not written an official letter of resignation, DiIulio has informed presidential chief advisor Karl Rove, and White House chief of staff Andy Card. John Bridgeland, head of the administration's Policy Council, said that the White House would look for ways to keep DiIulio involved in some capacity in trying to guide the faith-based initiative through the senate.

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