Sen. McCain's response on faith-based programs

We've been talking about Sen. Obama's recent speech, in which he endorsed the pre-Bush version of the faith-based initiative, and also about the reservations many religious-freedom advocates do and will have about the proposed roll-back of protections for organizations that hire for religious mission.  Here, for what it's worth, is a short response issued by Sen. McCain: 

John McCain supports faith based initiatives, and recognizes their important
role in our communities. He has cosponsored legislation to foster improved
partnerships with community organizations, including faith-based, to assist
with substance abuse and violence prevention. He also believes that it is
important for faith-based groups to be able to hire people who share their
faith, and he disagrees with Senator Obama that hiring at faith-based groups
should be subject to government oversight.

If Sen. Obama could persuade his fellow Democrats to drop their insistence on applying the same non-discrimination norms that (appropriately) bind the government to religious organizations that engage, with some help from public funds, in providing social-welfare services, he truly would have helped to "turn a page" in our politics.