DuBois Gives Final Benediction As White House Faith-Based Head

30-year-old minister leaves to teach in New York and will write a book

There’d been so much crazy talk about President Barack Obama and his “secret Muslim” religion during his first term, that few noticed he had an in-house “pastor,” Joshua DuBois. The 30-year-old Pentecostal minister is leaving his post as director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, the president has announced. Today is DuBois’s last day. Obama has called DuBois a “close friend of mine…” who “has been at my side – in work and in prayer – for years now.” DuBois has played a central role in maintaining the president’s relationship with religious leaders, particularly when they opposed policy changes that didn’t square with religious beliefs. DuBois will go on to teach at New York University and write a book of devotionals for leaders, a White House official said. But it’s Obama who will miss those devotionals most: “Every morning he sends me via e-mail a daily meditation – a snippet of Scripture for me to reflect on. And it has meant the world to me,” he said at the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday. (New York Times)

[SUBSCRIBE TO LOOP 21 RSS FEED]