DEC. 19, 2005

GOVERNMENT POLICY
Faith-based social services: the human factor

Since President Bush established the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives in 2001, similar offices have been opened in eight federal departments, two federal agencies, 30 state governments and dozens of cities. The government's effort to provide more opportunities for religious organizations to receive federal funding for social services has generated thousands of pages in grant materials, regulations, executive orders, explanatory materials, legislation, and, in some cases, lawsuits.

Reporters have had to contend with unanswerable questions: How much government money is given to religious organizations? How exactly do they use it? Are religious organizations more effective than the government in providing social services? If so, which ones? What rules are groups following about what activities government money should or should not fund?

Now, nearly five years after the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives opened, journalists in every state can find concrete, street-level stories about the people giving and receiving faith-based services and government funds. What to watch for?
• Advocates of faith-based social services recommend looking at the relationships between providers and those they serve. Those relationships make the biggest difference between faith-based and government providers, many say.
• Watchdogs, critics and others wary of government plans say to follow the money - who gets it, for what and how is it used and accounted for - and the rules - what are grantees told about restrictions on the money and hiring?
• Both groups say that it's key to look at the effectiveness and efficiency of how grant money is being used.
• Watch for lawsuits, which continue to define the rules on how government money is spent. See "The State of the Law - 2005" from the Roundtable on Religion and Social Welfare Policy for updates on lawsuits recently resolved and filed.
• One of the newest avenues for covering this story is activity in the states. Journalists can find people-oriented stories in their area by talking to the state liaisons of faith-based initiatives and looking at the expanding body of research on faith-based social services in the states. Local organizations can be profiled in light of the many national issues involved in the debate.

Why it matters

Religious organizations have a long history of providing critical social services, but America also has a long history of respecting the separation of church and state. Government funding of faith-based social services raises questions both about how much the government should rely on religious organizations and how the constitutional provisions for freedom of and from religion play out in individual grants.

Click the map for interview sources in your state and region

National

GOVERNMENT
• Jim Towey is director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. Contact 202-456-6708.
• Stephen Goldsmith is chairman of the Corporation for National and Community Service, as well as Daniel Paul Professor of Government and director of the Innovation in American Government program at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. He is also a special adviser to President Bush on faith-based initiatives. A former mayor of Indianapolis, Goldsmith is the author of Putting Faith in Neighborhoods: Making Cities Work Through Grassroots Citizenship (Hudson Institute, 2002). Contact 617-384-7358, steve_goldsmith@ksg.harvard.edu.
• Eleven federal agencies are involved in faith-based initiatives and funding. Thirty states have government offices of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. The government posts contact information for all of them.

ACADEMICS
• Diana Garland, dean of the Baylor University School of Social Work, is the primary researcher for FASTEN (Faith and Service Technical Education Network), which offers informational resources and networking opportunities to faith-based practitioners, private philanthropies, and public administrators. It also identifies best practices in faith-based services and multi-sector collaboration. Contact 254.710.6223, Diana_Garland@baylor.edu.
• Ram A. Cnaan is a leading expert on faith-based social services. Cnaan is a professor, the associate dean for research, professor and chairman of the doctoral program in social welfare at the University of Pennsylvania. He is also director of the Program for Religion and Social Policy Research and co-author of The Invisible Caring Hand: American Congregations and the Provision of Welfare (New York University Press, 2002). Contact 215-898-5523, cnaan@sp2.upenn.edu.
• Mark Chaves is professor of sociology and department chairman at the University of Arizona. He has written extensively on faith-based initiatives, Charitable Choice and congregations. He is the author of Congregations in America (Harvard University Press, 2004). Contact 520-626-2560, mchaves@u.arizona.edu.
• Richard Nathan is director of The Roundtable on Religion and Social Welfare Policy, which researches government involvement with faith-based social services. He is also director of the Rockefeller Institute of Government and the distinguished professor of political science and public policy at the State University of New York at Albany. Contact through Roundtable director of communications R. Bryan Jackson, 518-443-5774, jacksonb@rockinst.org.
• Joseph Loconte, William E. Simon Fellow in Religion and a Free Society at the Heritage Foundation, supports the right of religious organizations to discriminate in hiring even when receiving public funding. He's the author of God, Government and the Good Samaritan: The Promise and Peril of the President's Faith-Based Agenda (Heritage Foundation, 2002). Contact 202-546-4400.
• John DiIulio Jr. is a political science professor at the University of Pennsylvania and was the first director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. A frequent speaker and writer on faith-based social services, he is co-editor of What's God Got to Do With the American Experiment? (Brookings, 2000). Contact 215-746-7121.
• Ira Lupu and Robert Tuttle are co-directors of legal analysis at the Roundtable on Religion and Social Welfare Policy and professors at George Washington University Law School in Washington, D.C. They track legal developments related to government funding of faith-based social services and offer legal analysis. Contact Lupu at 202-994-7053, iclupu@law.gwu.edu, and Tuttle at 202-994-8163, rtuttle@law.gwu.edu.
• Rebecca Sager is a doctoral candidate at the University of Arizona who recently completed a survey in which she interviewed the leaders of all the state offices of faith-based and community initiatives across the country to determine what role faith played in their work. Contact 520-621-3531, rsager@email.arizona.edu.
• Helene Slessarev-Jamir is director of the urban studies program at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Ill. She is writing a book on faith-based social justice work. Contact 630-752-5730, Helene.Slessarev@wheaton.edu.

RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS
• The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops supports the government's faith-based initiative. Read a June 2005 statement. Contact Kathy Curran, 202-541-3188, kcurran@usccb.org, or Mark Gallagher, 202-541-3142, mgallagher@usccb.org.
• Jim Wallis is founder of the poverty-fighting coalition Call to Renewal, editor in chief of Sojourners magazine and author of God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It (HarperSanFrancisco, 2005). Contact 202-328-8842.
• Noel Castellanos is institute director of the Christian Community Development Association, which works to reclaim and restore under-resourced communities. It's based in Chicago. Contact 773-762-0994, Noel@ccda.org.
• The Rev. Richard Cizik is vice president for governmental affairs of the National Association of Evangelicals, which is supportive of the government's faith-based initiatives. Contact 202-789-1011, rcizik@aol.com.
• Ron Sider is president and founder of Evangelicals for Social Action and the author of Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger: Moving From Affluence to Generosity (W Publishing Group, 1997). Contact 610-645-9354, ronsider@esa-online.org.
• Marvin Olasky is editor of World magazine and a journalism professor at the University of Texas at Austin. He is credited with coining the phrase "compassionate conservatism" and has been a proponent of the government's faith-based initiatives. He is the author of Renewing American Compassion: How Compassion for the Needy Can Turn Ordinary Citizens Into Heroes (The Free Press, 1996). Contact 512-471-7908, molasky@aol.com.
• C. Welton Gaddy is a Baptist minister and heads up the Interfaith Alliance, an organization of liberal religious leaders. He has been critical of the president's faith-based initiative, and his organization has been active in monitoring whether government funds are financing religious activities. Contact through Don Parker, 202-639-6370 ext. 106.
• Mark J. Pelavin is associate director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, which has been critical of the government's faith-based initiative. Contact mpelavin@rac.org or Alexis Rice, 202-387-2800 ext. 35, arice@rac.org.
• Nathan Diament is director of public policy for the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America. Read his 2004 congressional testimony about concerns about the government's faith-based initiative. Contact 202-262-1844, ndiament@ou.org.
• Lewis Grafman is in charge of social action and public policy for the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, which has opposed the government's faith-based initiative. See a 2001 press release.
• Hodan Hassan at the Washington, D.C.-based Council on American-Islamic Relations favors faith-based programs in principle but she says the initiative, thus far, has "glaring problems" in the perceived lack of diversity among groups already chosen for government support and in the potential for government support to groups with intolerant agendas. Contact 202-488-8787, hhassan@cair-net.org.
• Mohamed El-Sanousi is director of community outreach and communications for the Islamic Society of North America. He attended a White House conference on faith-based and community initiatives. Contact 317-839-1821 ext. 228, melsanousi@isna.net.

OTHER
• The Rev. Barry Lynn is executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which has been active in criticizing the government's faith-based initiative and filing lawsuits that challenge its legal grounding. See its resource page. Contact through Joe Conn, 202-466-3234, conn@au.org.
• Jay Sekulow is chief counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice, a public interest law firm based in Washington, D.C., that has applauded the government's faith-based initiative. Read a 2002 press release. Contact 757-575-9520.

Background

• Read "The Faith-Based Initiative Re-Ups" in the Spring 2005 edition of Religion in the News from The Leonard E. Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life.
• Read "More states reach out to faith-based initiatives," a Jan. 12, 2005, Stateline.org story.
• The Texas Freedom Network posts a timeline of developments in government funding of faith-based initiatives from before 1996, when President Clinton signed "Charitable Choice" legislation into law, to 2004.

GOVERNMENT
• The web site of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives includes information on grants as well as upcoming regional conferences and targeted workshops aimed at helping organizations apply for grants.
• It also lists all the executive orders involving faith-based initiatives.

LEGAL BACKGROUND
• See "State of the Law 2005 -- Federal-State Legal Relations: The Potential for Cooperation and Conflict" from the Roundtable on Religion & Social Welfare.
• The Roundtable on Religion & Social Welfare Policy also:

• Tracks legal developments in government funding of faith-based initiatives on their web site. • Publishes articles and reports on specific legal issues. • Tracks state constitutional laws and state-by-state constitutional provisions for faith-based initiatives. • Reports on state activity with links to information on specific states. • Posts a clickable state-by-state map on faith-based resources.

RESEARCH REPORTS
• The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life posts a resource page on religion and social welfare that includes links to reports and publications.
• The Hartford Institute for Religion Research posts a page with links to a dozen research reports on faith-based social services.
• "Faith-Based Policy on the Ground" (July 2005), an Urban Institute report on how federal policy affects the state and local delivery of faith-based social services in Birmingham, Ala., Boston and Denver.
• "Faith-Based Entrepreneurs: A Survey of Earned Income Venturing by Social Service FBOs in Twelve Cities" (2005) by Amy L. Sherman and John C. Green.
• Funding Faith-Based Initiatives in a Time of Fiscal Pressures (October 2004), a report by the Roundtable on Religion & Social Welfare Policy
• Directory of Hispanic Church-based Social Services (searchable by state) by the Hudson Institute.
• "Faith & Philanthropy" (2002), a report from the Independent Sector.
• "Fruitful Collaborations: Fruitful Collaboration: A Survey of Government Funded Faith-Based Programs in 15 States." (2002) by Amy L. Sherman and John C. Green.
• "Faith-Based Initiatives: Sacred Deeds and Secular Dollars" (July 2001), a report from the Urban Institute.
• Read a 2002 study of the effectiveness of secular vs. faith-based transitional housing programs in Grand Rapids, Michigan from the Roundtable on Religion and Social Welfare Policy.