Faith-Based Initiatives Research Articles

Coopting the State: The Conservative Evangelical Movement and State-Level Institutionalization, Passage, and Diffusion of Faith-Based Initiatives

In the following, we characterize the contemporary conservative Evangelical movement as an example of contentious politics, a movement that relies on both institutional and noninstitutional tactics to achieve political outcomes. Examining multiple institutional and legislative outcomes related to the Faith Based Initiative, we seek to understand why some states have established state faith-based bureaucracies and passed significantly more faith-based legislation. We find that the influence of elite movement actors within state Republican parties has been central to these policy achievements. Furthermore, we find that the presence of movement-inspired offices increase the rate of adoption of legislation, and the passage of symbolic policies increases the likelihood of passage of more substantive faith-based legislation. We argue that the examination of multiple outcomes over time is critical to capturing second order policy effects in which new institutions, the diffusion of legislation and institutions, and increasing policy legitimacy may shape subsequent legislative developments.

Small Faith-Related Organizations as Partners in Local Social Service Networks

Efforts to enlist small faith-related organizations as partners in public service delivery raise many questions. Using community social service networks as the unit of analysis, this paper asks one with broader relevance to nonprofit sector managers: What factors support and constrain effective integration of these organizations into a local service delivery network? The evidence and illustrations come from longitudinal case studies of five faith-related organizations who received their first government contract as part of a California faith-based initiative. By comparing the organizational development and network partnership trajectories of these organizations over more than a decade, the analysis identifies four key variables influencing partnership dynamics and outcomes: organizational niche within the local network; leadership connections and network legitimacy; faith-inspired commitments and persistence; and core organizational competencies and capacities. The evidence supports shifting the focus of faith-based initiatives to emphasize local planning and network development, taking into account how these four variables apply to specific organizations and their community context.

Collateral Damage: September 11th and the Performance of the Faith-Based and Community Initiative

One of the major policy innovations implemented by newly elected George W. Bush was his Faith-Based and Community Initiative. The objective of the Initiative was to create a “level playing field” where faith-based organizations could compete with secular organizations for government funding of social aid programs. This analysis advances that the timing of 9/11 and its relation to the developments within American government conspired to create substantial collateral damage concerning the effectiveness of the policy. While acknowledging that 9/11 did not instigate debate concerning the policy, the study evaluates how it nevertheless was in a number of ways a catalyst in: 1) the intensification of conflict concerning such policy and 2) the Bush administration’s failure to effectively apply it. In order to show how 9/11 had an influence on the development and execution of the policy, a very short but necessary description of the background of the program leading up to the event constitutes the first part of the analysis. Subsequently, a second part evaluates how 9/11 had an impact on faith-based policy and its performance. The study highlights one of the most important inner-circle players on Bush’s faith-based policy team at the time of the attacks, John Dilulio Jr., the Director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. I concentrate particularly on Dilulio as his case provides a unique and efficient vehicle for illustrating both the chain of events leading up to 9/11 as well as the collateral damage to faith-based policy.

Faith-Based International Development Work: A Review

In the wake of the Faith-Based Initiative in the USA, substantial research has resulted in an increased awareness of religious congregations and faith-based organizations as welfare service providers. The next frontier appears to be the role of religious organizations in international social and economic development, a topic that only recently started to attract academic interest. In this paper, we review available literature on the role that religious, or faith-based, organizations play in international social and economic development. We also provide results from our own study of USA international NGOs1 that are faith-based. We divide the paper into the positive contributions of faith-based international NGOs and the drawbacks of these NGOs. We find that faith-based nonprofits constitute almost 60 percent of USA-based international development organizations, and their contribution to international social development is quite considerable. We conclude with a call for further research and nuanced understanding of the role religion plays in international development.

Association Between Food Insecurity and Serious Psychological Distress Among Hispanic Adults Living in Poverty.

IntroductionFood insecurity has been associated with negative health outcomes, but the relationship between psychological distress and food insecurity among ethnic minorities has not been extensively examined in the literature. The goal of this study was to evaluate whether low food security and very low food security were significantly associated with past month serious psychological distress (SPD) among Hispanic adults living in poverty.MethodsWe studied 10,966 Hispanic respondents to the California Health Interview Survey for 2007, 2009, and 2011–2012 whose income was below 200% of the federal poverty level. The relationship between food insecurity and SPD was evaluated by using survey-weighted univariate and logistic regression analyses.ResultsNearly 30% of the study population had low food security and 13% had very low food security. Low food security and very low food security were associated with 1.99 and 4.43 odds of past month SPD, respectively, and perceived low neighborhood safety was related to 1.47 odds of past month SPD.ConclusionsWe found that food insecurity was prevalent among Hispanic people living in poverty and was significantly associated with past month SPD. These results demonstrate the need for further targeted public health efforts, such as community gardens led by promotores, faith-based initiatives, and initiatives to reduce barriers to participation in food-assistance programs.

Re-examining the Policies in the Humanitarian Aid Sector – A Call for Greater “Value Rationality”

AbstractFaith-based giving in the U.S. constitutes over one-third of all charity (Giving USA, 2013). The proliferation of policy initiatives that promoted faith-based giving and giving to humanitarian aid organizations post George W Bush’s establishment of the Office of Faith-based initiatives and community Partnerships has been controversial, to say the least. But despite this, the sector has been robust. One segment of philanthropy that has been unnecessarily controversial is that of Islamic charity. With the attacks of September 11, 2001, there were a slew of legislative as well as Executive reforms that put Islamic charities under the scanner. Executive Order 13224 and the subsequent initiatives under the PATRIOT Act have reduced donations to Islamic charities, in the initial year. In this short paper, I argue that some of the restrictive measures in place – that apply to NGOs working in conflict zones – should be removed, so aid can reach the beneficiaries, so that NGOs’ offering this aid to not fear being targeted by U.S. law enforcement authorities. Given the massive refugee crisis we are witnessing, the role of Muslim NGOs in conflict zones may become crucial for long-term rehabilitation and resettlement.

Re-examining the Policies in the Humanitarian Aid Sector – A Call for Greater “Value Rationality”

AbstractFaith-based giving in the U.S. constitutes over one-third of all charity (Giving USA, 2013). The proliferation of policy initiatives that promoted faith-based giving and giving to humanitarian aid organizations post George W Bush’s establishment of the Office of Faith-based initiatives and community Partnerships has been controversial, to say the least. But despite this, the sector has been robust. One segment of philanthropy that has been unnecessarily controversial is that of Islamic charity. With the attacks of September 11, 2001, there were a slew of legislative as well as Executive reforms that put Islamic charities under the scanner. Executive Order 13224 and the subsequent initiatives under the PATRIOT Act have reduced donations to Islamic charities, in the initial year. In this short paper, I argue that some of the restrictive measures in place – that apply to NGOs working in conflict zones – should be removed, so aid can reach the beneficiaries, so that NGOs’ offering this aid to not fear being targeted by U.S. law enforcement authorities. Given the massive refugee crisis we are witnessing, the role of Muslim NGOs in conflict zones may become crucial for long-term rehabilitation and resettlement.

The Impact of Devolution on Organizational Effectiveness: An Exploratory Case Study of Faith-Based Child Care

Although the foundations of President Bush’s faith-based initiative could be traced back at least to Colonial times, the re-packaging of this idea has raised concerns about the role of the federal government in the affairs of faith based organizations, the professionalization of social services, rent seeking, and the crowding out of private funding. This paper aims to examine the local implications of decentralizing the provision of social services in Lee County, Florida. More specifically, we will identify how devolution has affected the organizational effectiveness of faith-based organizations in the day care sector. For this paper, organizational effectiveness was defined in terms of goal setting, efficient use of resources, and reputation. This initial exploratory study suggests that any devolutionary policy that aims to aggressively include faith-based organizations in the provision of social services will face the challenge of weak information flow mechanisms within the industry.

What they wished for: American Catholics and American presidents, 1960-2004

As a religious bloc, Roman Catholics constitute the most populous religious denomination in the United States, comprising one in four Americans. With the election of John F. Kennedy as president in 1960, they attained a political prominence to match their rapidly ascending socioeconomic and cultural profile. From Vietnam to Iraq, the civil rights movement to federal funding for faith-based initiatives, and from birth control to abortion, American Catholics have won at least as often as they have lost. What They Wished For by Lawrence J. McAndrews traces the role of American Catholics in presidential policies and politics from 1960 until 2004. Though divided by race, class, gender, and party, Catholics have influenced issues of war and peace, social justice, and life and death among modern presidents in a profound way, starting with the election of President Kennedy and expanding their influence through the intervening years with subsequent presidents. McAndrews shows that American Catholics, led by their bishops and in some cases their pope, have been remarkably successful in shaping the political dialogue and at helping to effect policy outcomes inside and outside of Washington. Indeed, although they opened this era by helping to elect one of their own, Catholic voters have gained so much influence and have become so secure in their socioeconomic status - and so confident in their political standing - that they closed the era by rejecting one of their own, voting for George W. Bush over John Kerry in 2004.

The Empirical Ties between Religious Motivation and Altruism in Foster Parents: Implications for Faith-Based Initiatives in Foster Care and Adoption

Amidst a crisis shortage of foster homes in the child welfare system, a number of innovative faith-based collaborations aimed at recruiting foster parents have recently emerged. It has been suggested that these collaborations offer a unique opportunity to recruit committed and altruistic parents as caregivers, providing much needed capacity to an overloaded child welfare system. This paper uses data from the National Survey of Current and Former Foster Parents to examine the associations between religious motivations for fostering, altruism and various measures of foster home utilization and longevity. The empirical results demonstrate that religiously motivated foster parents are more likely to have altruistic reasons for fostering, and scored higher than the non-religiously motivated group on an index of altruism. A separate empirical analysis shows that the interaction of high levels of altruism and religious motivation is associated with higher foster home utilization. No association was found between religious altruism and the parent’s expressed intent to continue providing foster care. The implications of these findings for current faith-based collaboration in the child welfare arena are discussed.

The Theology of Emergency: Welfare Reform, US Foreign Aid and the Faith-Based Initiative

This article addresses the rise of faith-based emergency relief by examining the US President’s Emergency Plan for HIV/AIDS (PEPFAR), a public health intervention focused on the AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa. It argues that the theological turn in humanitarian aid serves to amplify ongoing dynamics in the domestic politics of sub-Saharan African states, where social services have assumed the form of chronic emergency relief and religious organizations have come to play an increasingly prominent role in the provision of such services. In the context of an ongoing public health crisis, PEPFAR has institutionalized the social authority of the Pentecostal and charismatic churches, leading to a semantic confluence between the postcolonial politics of emergency and the Pentecostal/Pauline theology of kairos or event. Far from being confined to the space of foreign aid, however, the faith-based turn in humanitarianism is in keeping with ongoing reforms in domestic social policy in the United States. While on the one hand the sustained welfare programmes of the New Deal and Great Society have been dismantled in favour of a system of emergency relief, on the other hand the federal government has intensified its moral, pedagogical and punitive interventions into the lives of the poor. The wilful transfer of welfare services to overtly religious service providers has played a decisive role in this process. The article concludes with a critical appraisal of the links between African and North American Pentecostal-evangelical churches and questions the revolutionary mission ascribed to Pauline political theology in recent political theory.

Faith-Based Initiatives in Health Promotion: History, Challenges, and Current Partnerships

Faith-based institutions and organizations represent a longstanding yet underutilized resource for health promotion and disease prevention efforts. The White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, and its affiliated office within the Department of Health and Human Services, are the highest-profile markers of federal efforts, but most faith-health partnerships are not federally funded and date back many decades. Formal partnerships between the faith-based and public health sectors encompass activities in the fields of health behavior and health education, health policy and management, epidemiology and biostatistics, and environmental health. These partnerships are instrumental for achieving both domestic and global health promotion priorities.

Leading Their Flocks to Health? Clergy Health and the Role of Clergy in Faith-Based Health Promotion Interventions

Faith-based organizations are a frequent partner in health promotion due to their large and expansive reach across multiple demographics of the United States. These faith-based organizations are led by clergy members who have a strong influence over their institutions and who shape the physical and social environments of their institutions for health-related matters. The purpose of this review was to examine current issues associated with the health, behaviors, and well-being of clergy, highlight the literature on the role clergy play in delivering effective health promotion interventions, and present recommendations for improving clergy health and the involvement of clergy in faith-based initiatives.

Faith-Based Initiatives to Promote Health

Bruce, Marino A. PhD, MSRC, MDiv, CRC; Issue Editors; Whitt-Glover, Melicia C. PhD, FACSM; Issue Editors Author Information

Plural Sovereignty for the Common Good: Faith-Based Initiatives and the Social Question Today

In the era of welfare reform since the mid-1990s, social policy has become increasingly intertwined with developments in church-state law that seem to encourage more cooperation between government programs and faith-based organizations. George W. Bush’s faith-based initiative—his signature domestic policy initiative—was an important effort to advance this trend in a structural way, but the Obama administration, despite initial signals of support, has reverted to a liberal-secularist approach that is not only constitutionally obsolete, but politically damaging for the future of the social safety net.

Neoliberalism in New Orleans

Neoliberalism in New Orleans Ruth Salvaggio (bio) A review of Vincanne Adams, Markets of Sorrow, Labors of Faith: New Orleans in the Wake of Katrina. Durham: Duke UP, 2013. “This book is not about Katrina. It is about Americans who have managed to survive a second-order disaster … about the effects of privatizing our most public social services, and about the failure of these services to respond to Americans in need because they are tied to market forces guided by profit” (1). So begins Vincanne Adams’s study of neoliberal policies enacted in the wake of Katrina, policies put into play by the U.S. government’s market-driven response to social welfare programs in general and to disaster recovery in particular. But it is the very particular recovery from Katrina that consumes Adams in this book. She amasses abundant materials that show the inter-workings of government contracts, banking practices, recovery and rescue programs, faith-based initiatives, and charity-for-profit in Katrina’s wake, and she surrounds this data with narratives gained through extensive interviews with citizens of New Orleans who became ensnared in the distinctly entrepreneurial recovery of their city. In some sense, the rebuilding of parts of New Orleans has breathed new life into the city, making for an impressive glossy portrait of its post-Katrina fate. But what Adams sketches out here is not a pretty picture, and it is a picture that shows the fault lines on which profit-driven disaster recovery is likely to proceed anywhere in our increasingly disaster-prone times. The “markets of sorrow” that made booty of human suffering in this particular disaster all stem from market-driven governance policies and their quick implementation in the post-Katrina recovery. These include government dispensation of money and contracts, typically via FEMA and Homeland Security operations, to the likes of Blackwater, Halliburton, and Bechtel for initial rescue and temporary housing (notably the infamous and toxic FEMA Trailers); government subcontracting of the huge federally-funded state-run initiative known as the Road Home Program to the private-sector corporation ICF International; and implementation of the Small Business Administration loan program which forced victims not only to pay for their own long-term recovery, but to pay interest on that self-sustaining venture. In a careful and precise analysis of the workings of these markets, Adams shows how they failed, again and again, to help the people most in need to come even close to rebuilding their homes or renting affordable housing, while they proved remarkably successful as profit-making ventures for the corporations and agencies that used public money for generating private profit. The SBA program alone produced what Adams calls “disaster-induced debt” of the same kind that keeps poor nations perpetually in debt to richer ones, bringing global neoliberal capitalism home to a devastated American city. But there is more. These “markets of sorrow” were variously supported by what Adams calls “labors of faith”—notably the volunteer labor of faith-based groups who descended on the city by the hundreds of thousands, whose good works replaced direct government-funded rebuilding assistance and transformed New Orleans into a veritable missionary outpost. In addition, the more general operations of numerous charity initiatives unfolded through the market’s penetration of humanitarian assistance. This vast “charity economy” continues to extend from the labor of house-gutting and rebuilding by volunteers to the entrepreneurial initiatives of both government and corporations that basically conscript volunteers and the poor into the service of private-sector firms managed by what Adams identifies as “intermediary” organizations—such as the HandsOn Network and Points of Light Institute. Charity is not so much given, but administered—relying on free-market strategies, and blurring any effective distinction between “for profit” and “nonprofit” initiatives. In the case of disasters like Katrina, a particular kind of emotional response that should rightly fuel volunteer action and philanthropic contributions gets channeled through an “affect economy” in which a surplus of emotion serves market agendas. ICF, which made a mess of the Road Home Program, resurfaces as a major investor in faith-based programs, offering its services (for pay) to help such groups organize themselves according to successful...

Faith-Based Organizations as Service Providers and Their Relationship to Government

The welfare reforms initiated in the 1990s prompted increased discussion of the use of faith-based organizations for the provision of social services. This is the second of two articles examining the progress of this debate. The first article provides the scope of inquiry, defines specific characteristics of faith-based organizations, and outlines methods used to study them. This article discusses specific services provided by faith-based organizations and how these organizations are related to the government. Faith-based organizations compared favorably to secular organizations in the services they provided while providing a somewhat narrower range of services. The implementation of Charitable Choice and other faith-based initiatives as policy required consideration of constitutional and practical issues with the implementation of collaborations and partnerships between government and faith-based organizations along with increased government funding and contracting for these organizations.

Proceedings of the 4th Annual Meeting of the Alliance for Surgery and Anesthesia Presence (ASAP): Building Sustainable Surgical Systems

Proceedings of the 4th Annual Meeting of the Alliance for Surgery and Anesthesia Presence (ASAP): Building Sustainable Surgical Systems

What’s Next in Faith-Based Community Organizing

What’s Next in Faith-Based Community Organizing

A Faith-Based Initiative Meets the Evidence: Does a Flexible Exchange Rate Regime Really Facilitate Current Account Adjustment?

It is often asserted that a flexible exchange rate regime would facilitate current account adjustment. Using data on over 170 countries over the 1971–2005 period, we examine this assertion systematically. We find no strong, robust, or monotonic relationship between exchange rate regime flexibility and the rate of current account reversion, even after accounting for the degree of economic development and trade and capital account openness. This finding presents a challenge to the Friedman (1953) hypothesis and a popular policy recommendation by international financial institutions.