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.

National sources

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 through Tim King, 202-745-4636 or tking@sojo.net and media@sojo.net.
• 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.

Regional sources

IN THE NORTHEAST
• Nancy Ammerman is professor of the sociology of religion at Boston University’s School of Theology and author of Pillars of Faith: American Congregations and Their Partners (University of California Press, 2005). Contact 617-353-3066, nta@bu.edu.
• Peter Hall is a lecturer in public policy at the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations in the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He does research on social welfare policy and civic engagement and has held a teaching appointment in the Divinity School. Contact 617-495-5117, pd_hall@harvard.edu.
• Kimberly A. Mealy is visiting assistant professor of political science at Wellesley College in Massachusetts. She has researched African-Americans’ attitudes toward government funding of faith-based initiatives. Contact 781-283-2459, kmealy@Wellesley.edu.
• Read “New Hampshire’s Social Service Contracts with Faith-Based Organizations,” an April 2004 report from the NH Center for Public Policy Studies.

IN THE EAST
• Amy Sherman is senior fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C., where she directs the Faith in Communities Initiative. She is a frequent speaker on religion and public policy and author. Contact 202-974-2400, HudsonFIC@ntelos.net.
• Robert Wuthnow, a sociologist of religion, is director of the Center for the Study of Religion at Princeton University in New Jersey and author of Saving America?: Faith-Based Services and the Future of Civil Society (Princeton University Press, 2004). Contact 609-258-5545, wuthnow@princeton.edu.
• Jo Renee Formicola is professor of political science at Seton Hall University in South Orange, N.J., and co-editor of Faith Based Initiatives and the Bush Administration: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2003). Contact 973-76l-9383, formicjo@shu.edu.
• Mary S. Segers is professor of political science and department chairwoman at Rutgers University-Newark. She specializes in religion and politics and is co-editor of Faith Based Initiatives and the Bush Administration: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2003). Contact 973-353-5105, segers@andromeda.rutgers.edu.
• The Rev. Frederick Davie Jr. is vice president of faith-based programs at Public/Private Ventures, a Philadelphia-based think tank that specializes in research and demonstration projects dealing with high-risk and at-risk youth. He will become president in June 2006. He has worked for 20 years in collaborations between government and faith-based groups, including emergency food programs in New York City funded by city government and with a network of churches in Brooklyn, doing housing development with city funds. Contact 212-822-2400 ext. 1403.

IN THE SOUTHEAST
• Amy Sherman is on staff of Faith in Communities, which does research to help shape public policies that empower faith-based community practitioners. The affiliate of the Hudson Institute is based in Charlottesville, Va. Contact 434-293-5656.
• Charles Marsh is a professor of religion at the University of Virginia and director of the university’s Project on Lived Theology. Read a Roundtable interview with him. Contact 434-924-6839, CMarsh@virginia.edu.
• Isam E. Ballenger, professor of Christian mission and world Christianity at the Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond in Virginia, sees faith-based initiatives as a threat to both church and state. He quotes the New Testament, saying that Jesus’ admonition to render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s and unto God that which is God’s recognizes the separateness of each domain. Contact 804-204-1219.

IN THE SOUTH
• John M. Perkins is founder and president of the John M. Perkins Foundation for Reconciliation and Development. in Jackson, Miss., and a founder of the Christian Community Development Association. Contact 601-354-1563, jmpfoffice@jam.rr.com.
• Kathleen Flake is assistant professor of American religious history at Vanderbilt University’s Divinity School. An attorney, she teaches courses in religion and the law. Contact 615-322-2776, kathleen.flake@vanderbilt.edu.

IN THE MIDWEST
• Amy Black is associate professor of politics and international relations at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Ill., and co-author of Of Little Faith: The Politics of George W. Bush’s Faith-Based Initiatives (Georgetown University Press, 2004).
• Doug Koopman is professor of political science at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich., and co-author of Of Little Faith: The Politics of George W. Bush’s Faith-Based Initiatives (Georgetown University Press, 2004). Contact 616-526-6706, dkoopman@calvin.edu.
• David Ryden is professor of political science and department chairman at Hope College in Holland, Mich., and co-author of Of Little Faith: The Politics of George W. Bush’s Faith-Based Initiatives (Georgetown University Press, 2004). Contact 616-395-7546, den@hope.edu.
• Tracey Meares is Max Pam Professor of Law and director of the Center for Studies in Criminal Justice at the University of Chicago. She has given several presentations on the relationship between black churches and communities and organized a conference on “Faith-Based Initiatives and Urban Public Policy.” Contact 773-702-9582, tlmeares@midway.uchicago.edu.
• Corwin Smidt holds the Paul B. Henry Chair in Christianity and Politics and serves as executive director of the Henry Institute for the Study of Christianity and Politics at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich. He is editor of Religion As Social Capital: Producing the Common Good (Baylor University Press, 2003). Contact 616-526-6233.

IN THE SOUTHWEST
• Helen Rose Ebaugh is a professor of sociology at the University of Houston who specializes in the sociology of religion. Read about comments she made about the government’s faith-based initiative at a FACS seminar. Contact 713-743-3952, ebaugh@uh.edu.
• Jimmy Dorrell is founder and executive director of Mission Waco, a ministry to empower the poor, mobilize middle-class Americans and address systematic social injustices. He is pastor of Church Under the Bridge and also teaches classes at Baylor University and Truett Seminary in Waco. Contact 254-753-4900, jdorrell@missionwaco.org.
Robert V. Kemper, an anthropology professor at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, posts a 2004 article he co-authored, The World As It Should Be: Faith-Based Community Development in America, on his web site. Contact 214-768-2928, rkemper@mail.smu.edu.
• Kathy Miller is president of the Texas Freedom Network in Austin says it “advances a mainstream agenda of religious freedom and individual liberties to counter the religious right.” It posts a page of resources on faith-based initiatives. Contact 512-322-0545.

IN THE WEST/NORTHWEST
• Ray Bakke is founder of Urban Ministry Associates and distinguished professor of global urban ministry at Bakke Graduate University of Ministry in Seattle. He is author of The Expanded Mission of City Center Churches (International Urban Associates, 1998). Contact 206-264-9100, bgu@bgu.edu.
• Star Parker, founder of the Coalition on Urban Renewal and Education in Los Angeles, has expressed concerns about the government’s faith-based initiative. Read a 2005 Agape Press interview posted by Crosswalk.com. Contact through Keisha Coleman, 310-410-9981.
• Greg W. Hamilton, president of the Vancouver, Wash.-based Northwest Religious Liberty Association, supports the idea of faith-based initiatives with an important qualification: He does not support government-funded faith-based groups discriminating in their hiring practices or offering sectarian programming. Hamilton is an ordained minister of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and a scholar of church-state issues, as well as an official at North Pacific Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, which serves Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington. Contact 360-816-1400 ext. 218, gregh@npuc.org.
• Salam Al-Marayati is the Los Angeles-based executive director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council. He expresses concerns that the faith-based initiative may leave minority religions like American Muslims out, but he says that religious groups do provide a benefit to society so the tax incentive provision is OK as long as it brings about “degrees of change” and not a massive overhaul of the current system. Contact 213-383-3443, salam@mpac.org.