Saving America? : faith-based services and the future of civil society
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Bibliographic Information
Saving America? : faith-based services and the future of civil society
Princeton University Press, c2004
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Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. [333]-347) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
On January 29, 2001, President George W. Bush signed an executive order creating the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. This action marked a key step toward institutionalizing an idea that emerged in the mid-1990s under the Clinton administration--the transfer of some social programs from government control to religious organizations. However, despite an increasingly vocal, ideologically charged national debate--a debate centered on such questions as: What are these organizations doing? How well are they doing it? Should they be supported with tax dollars?--solid answers have been few. In Saving America? Robert Wuthnow provides a wealth of up-to-date information whose absence, until now, has hindered the pursuit of answers. Assembling and analyzing new evidence from research he and others have conducted, he reveals what social support faith-based agencies are capable of providing. Among the many questions he addresses: Are congregations effective vehicles for providing broad-based social programs, or are they best at supporting their own members? How many local congregations have formal programs to assist needy families?
How much money do such programs represent? How many specialized faith-based service agencies are there, and which are most effective? Are religious organizations promoting trust, love, and compassion? The answers that emerge demonstrate that American religion is helping needy families and that it is, more broadly, fostering civil society. Yet religion alone cannot save America from the broad problems it faces in providing social services to those who need them most. Elegantly written, Saving America? represents an authoritative and evenhanded benchmark of information for the current--and the coming--debate.
Table of Contents
List of Tables ix Preface xiii 1. Why "Faith-Based"? Why Now? 1 Bringing Evidence to Bear 5 Beyond the Modernization Story 9 The Faith-Based Services Debate 12 Religion as an Embedded Practice 17 A Civil Society? 22 2. Congregation-Based Social Services 25 Formal Sponsorship of Service Programs 28 Members' Awareness of Service Programs 42 Congregations' Financial Contribution 46 Which Congregations Do More? 52 How Service Programs Are Organized 57 Conclusions and Unanswered Questions 61 3. Congregations as Caring Communities 64 Emphasizing the Value of Caring 66 Congregations as Civic Space 70 Caring in Small Groups 74 Congregations as Sources of Social Capital 79 Gregariousness 84 Congregations as Sources of Influential Friends 89 Overcoming Status Distinctions 92 Summing Up 94 4. Religion and Volunteering 99 What Surveys Show 102 Who Volunteers More? 106 Is Faith-Based Volunteering Different? 115 Volunteering and Connectedness 119 Motivations for Volunteering 121 Barriers to Volunteering 132 Some Unresolved Questions 135 5. Faith-Based Service Organizations 138 How Many Faith-Based Organizations Are There? 140 How is Faith Involved? 142 How Faith-Based Organizations Function 150 Arguments about Effectiveness 158 The Role of Faith in Nonsectarian Organizations 161 Challenges and Strategies 165 Conclusions 171 6. The Recipients of Social Services 176 Census Bureau Information 177 Evidence from Other Sources 181 Religious Characteristics of the Lower-Income Population 185 Needs and Services in a Small City 191 Conclusions 213 7. Promoting Social Trust 217 Trust among Lower-Income People 219 Desirable Traits of Caregivers 222 Tr ustworthiness of Service Providers 228 A Closer Look at Trust 232 Trust within Families and among Friends 240 Trust in Congregations 243 Trust in Service Agencies 247 When Trust Is Broken 250 The Social Contribution of Trust 254 8. Experiencing Unlimited Love? 256 How Caregivers Talk about Love 261 Do Recipients Experience Love? 269 The Role of Faith 275 Consequences of Receiving Care 279 Limited Love and the Realities of Social Life 284 9. Public Policy and Civil Society 286 Support for Government-Religion Partnerships 288 The Christian Conservative Movement 297 Is Civil Society One-Dimensional? 305 Methodological Note 311 Notes 315 Select Bibliography 333 Index 349
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