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While most research has focused on federal faith‐based initiatives, what has gone largely unnoticed has been how extensive state faith‐based initiatives have become. State faith‐based initiatives are in fact more advanced in many ways than implementation at the federal level. States have passed significant faith‐based legislation, something the federal government has never been able to do, and state implementation of these initiatives has begun to shape governmental and faith‐based organizational culture. The consistent efforts of state liaisons and faith‐based conferences, with new faith‐based policies, have created greater opportunities for partnership between faith and government sectors, but have very rarely come up with the resources to make these new efforts work for extended periods of time. Analysis of data illustrates that state faith‐based policies and practices are creating an over‐arching cultural shift away from church/state separation to church/state cooperation.

While some see faith‐based initiatives as ephemeral, there is reason to believe that they can impact policy in the future by reshaping how the United States views the norm of church‐state separation. States have created extensive faith‐based bureaucracies, connecting government to religious groups and affecting the delicate balance between church and state for many years to come. These initiatives have flourished because of the confluence of fiscal need, social need, and religious belief with the political rhetoric surrounding them. State faith‐based initiatives have created a phenomenon that is beneficial for many politicians and political leaders, who can say they have helped and show off their new offices and policies, without having to come up with new money. The policies and practices that make up state faith‐based initiatives do not do what their supporters originally promised; rather, they have created a new cultural understanding of church and state.

The term “faith-based organizations” is inadequate because no clear definition exists of what it means to be “faith-based”. This chapter proposes an inductively derived typology to capture the religious characteristics of social service organizations and programs. The analysis focuses on the tangible, overt ways that religion may be manifest in a nonprofit entity, yielding six types: faith-permeated, faith-centered, faith-affiliated, faith-background, faith-secular partnership, and secular. The model is multidimensional, recognizing that the religious characteristics of an institution may differ from the specific programs it operates. Examples are drawn from the Philadelphia area to illustrate each type of organization and program.

This chapter provides a glimpse of the strategies and decisions made within the humanitarian marketplace. It introduces World Vision International, which is one of the dominant organizations providing secular relief around the world. It then studies the behavior of international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) and faith-based organizations (FBOs) in the humanitarian world, and explains the practices and strategies of humanitarians. The next section discusses the globalization and marketing of humanitarianism and the increased salience of faith. It also looks at the extent of control public donors have over humanitarian resources and the market for private donors, which is the largest source of revenue for most FBOs and INGOs.

This chapter examines the differences and similarities between secular and faith-based organizations by comparing the service provision across secular nonprofit organizations and various types of faith-based organizations (FBO). Survey data from the Multi-City Survey of Social Service Providers grasp the characteristic of FBOs and religious congregations that claim to provide social services to low-income populations. It adds that although places of worship offering informal or infrequent aid, counselling, or relief, were not included in the survey, the organizations interviewed showed the faith-based providers are most ready to take advantage of a faith-based service initiative and most likely to have the capability to increase social service activities.

This chapter examines the role of faith-based organisations in British urban governance from the 1990s onwards. It determines whether faith-based organisations have characteristics that set them apart from voluntary and community sector (VCS). The chapter begins with a short review of the policy and research context as it applies to faith and VCS engagement in urban governance and civil society. After discussing the definitional and conceptual issues, the chapter weighs the contributions and experiences of faith-based organisations against the contributions and experiences of secular VCS organisations in urban governance. Urban governance refers to the engagement of statutory and non-governmental partners in the creation and delivery of public policies and services in the creation and delivery of public policies and services. The chapter ends by arguing that there are several similarities in the general contribution and experiences of secular VCS organisations and faith-based organisations in this context. However, there are also differences to the extent and nature of links to a faith tradition.

This chapter analyses how contested understandings of sexuality and sex education for young people are put into practice in the transnational social field of development. It does so by focusing on the Educaids network, a transnational network of Dutch and East African faith-based organisations (FBOs) focused on the prevention of AIDS through education. This case study shows that the contestations over sexuality, and the strategies employed to overcome these contestations, are based on conflicting power claims as well as shared concerns. It is argued that a narrow focus on the colliding liberal and conservative views on sexuality in the field of development fails to contribute to a better understanding of the complex nature of transnational linkages between FBOs, in particular when it concerns sexuality and the prevention of AIDS.

Contestation pervades the politics of justice during periods of violent conflict, and also in subsequent peacebuilding initiatives. This chapter considers the principled contestation over justice norms that emanates from a diverse group of civil society actors engaged in the practices and politics of justice and peacebuilding. It pays particular attention to faith-based organizations. Many faith-based organizations have developed conceptions of justice that represent important alternative visions to legalistic or retributive approaches. Locally based organizations are also important in advancing and embedding alternatives to dominant international norms on transitional justice and peacebuilding. We find that no single consensus has emerged on appropriate peace, justice, and accountability strategies. Important areas of tension and contestation among actors engaged in transitional justice and peacebuilding remain salient even as areas of collaboration and cooperation among these actors have emerged in recent years.

The chapter identifies the constellation of desecularizing actors embedded in postsecular processes responsible for the emergence of the Faith-Based Foreign Aid regime under President Bush in the early 2000s. It examines the continuation and evolution of the regime over time and shows how this has depended on the type of desecularizing actors that have had access to the Bush and Obama administrations. It argues that the regime generates considerable forms of institutional desecularization, sustained by parallel processes of ideological and state-normative desecularization. In terms of global effects, the regime is potentially shaping global religious landscapes primarily by supporting Christian organizations and communities, and contributing to processes of religionization especially through mechanisms of elevation. The conclusion summarizes the chapter’s findings, compares the regime to the International Religious Freedom regime, and considers developments occurring under President Trump.

In the latter half of the 20th century, the developing professionalisation of social work was sometimes regarded to be a direct consequence of secularisation of the profession. Furthermore, social work practice frequently perpetuated the notion that religion is a purely private matter unless it is problematic. In this context, the need for religious literacy was inconceivable to many social workers and social work educators. A new Code of Ethics for Australian social workers in 2010 acknowledged a need for religious literacy but as to what might represent an adequate level of religious literacy is unclear. This chapter explores what is required in respect of religious literacy for social work practice and the consequences which can arise when social workers are unable to respond to, and advocate for, the needs of religious people in the specific societal contexts in which they live, work and participate in civic life. Furthermore, given the key role which faith-based organisations play in providing services which promote wellbeing for individuals, families and communities, this chapter goes on to explore religious literacies in the context of social workers needing to be able to establish and maintain working relationships with organisations which have a religious identity.

This chapter draws from a social movements perspective to examine how 1990s-era probation privatization contests reshaped the penal field in ways that led CBOs and FBOs to become more deeply incorporated in criminal justice reform efforts. As neoliberal think tanks aggressively promoted transferring probation activities to for-profit firms, the American Probation and Parole Association (APPA)—a CSG-related organization representing probation officers—fended off such threats by building public-private partnerships with CBOs and FBOs. The CSG and APPA still sought to preserve the influence of elite civic organizations in criminal justice reform. However, once seated at the table of criminal justice reform, faith leaders participated in both pastoral and insurgent displays of prophetic redemption. The efforts of CRS/FORCE and LA Voice/the Homeboys LOC trace their origins to these evolving contests over criminal justice reform.

The introduction summarises the chapter contributions that constitute the volume as a whole. It includes the research findings of the FACIT project, including methodologies and case studies, to explore the current role of FBOs in matters of poverty and social exclusion. The issues the volume addresses consist of the developing role of FBOs, the implications for policies and governance of European cities and the topicality of the volume.

In Malawi, as elsewhere in southern Africa, faith-based organisations (FBOs) have been integrated in the official response to HIV/AIDS. This new role, and the funding that accompanies it, has professionalised their traditional care activities around AIDS patients, widows and orphans, and it has also put them in charge of HIV prevention. As HIV preventers, they are asked to bridge epistemic differences between conflicting notions of sexuality and morality by reconciling public health messages, Christian teachings and local cosmologies. This becomes challenging when it comes to the question of sexuality education, specifically the promotion of abstinence, and condom use. Many FBO leaders’ response to this challenge is nuanced and defies stereotypes, as they try to balance their concern for young people, the demands of donors and the moral imperatives of their faith.

This chapter studies the interventions of the French Catholics during the colonial and postcolonial era, which was a time where the humanitarian work of the missionaries was separated from the work done by colonial rulers. It examines the attention placed on the material conditions of missions and missionaries, and introduces the Protestant frame of reference. It then shows the efforts of the missionaries to gain the support of faith-based organizations (FBO). This chapter also explains how technical knowledge and faith could be combined when missionaries were involved in the challenge of keeping the boundaries of the religious and the secular clear, and how the demands of nongovernmental organizations (NGO) can prove overwhelming.

This chapter describes the relationship between religion, religion-based institutions, and the field of global health. Its focus is primarily on Christian faith-based organizations and low-resource settings. It makes a distinction between religious motivations for individual’s global health activities and the work of religion-based health care institutions. The chapter reviews the development of the field of global health from its origins in international health during the Cold War; the chapter also explores the legacy of nineteenth-century medical missionaries and the contemporary phenomenon of short-term medical missions. A virtual explosion of funding from governmental and philanthropic sources in response to the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals and the HIV/AIDS epidemic has brought faith-based organizations into sometimes contentious partnerships with secular nongovernmental organizations. The chapter contends that, while there may be justifiable wariness on both sides, global public health efforts could benefit from increased partnerships with the faith-based sector.

This chapter concerns the establishment of a community organization in East Los Angeles aimed at empowering Mexican Americans. This was the United Neighborhoods Organization or UNO. Fr. Olivares from his parish in the barrio welcomed it and quickly became one of its key leaders. This chapter discusses the nature of UNO and its philosophy and strategies of organizing as a faith-based organization.

This chapter analyzes the role filled by Asociación Tepeyac de New York after September 11, 2001, and the ways that its success in filling a void in services for immigrant victims of the World Trade Center attacks transformed the organization. It asks whether this transformation was merely an inevitable—if hastened—stage in the organization's maturation toward greater bureaucratization and formalization of its services, or whether, in fact, the changes in the organization may have hearkened the end of its grassroots appeal and efficacy. This is a story with resonances of the long history of the growth and transformations of culture- and faith-based organizations serving immigrants reaching back to the mid-nineteenth century, even while it is also a story that could only occur in the twenty-first century in the particular globalized moment and the unique climate of expansion of “third sector” provision of services.

This chapter considers the services provided by faith-based and third sector organisations (TSOs), with the aim of encouraging them to use realist evaluation in helping to identify and evidence what it is about their programmes that offer benefit. It first provides an overview of the contexts of faith-based organisations and TSOs and of people accessing their services, including those affected by multiple and deep exclusion. It then describes realist evaluation and a realist-inspired evaluation that examines what works, for whom, in what circumstances, how and why. This case draws on the real-life experiences of two men who successfully addressed problematic alcohol use and its ramifications when accessing Salvation Army community programmes. The chapter concludes with an analysis of the concept of added value in the context of the Salvation Army's provision of basic support for people with problematic alcohol use.

Chapter 4 tells the story of how congregational health promotion and disease prevention programs evolved decades ago. Pioneered by the work of Granger Westberg in the 1970s and earlier efforts in community medicine in apartheid-era South Africa, later programs included collaborations with academic public health professionals, such as work in North Carolina churches focused on eliminating health disparities among African Americans. These programs, targeting underserved populations, have grown into a major feature of public health outreach in the United States, involving partnerships between faith-based and healthcare organizations. This chapter also outlines faith-based community programs involving healthcare and human services professionals that provide outreach to specialized populations. These include primary care clinics, faith community nursing, patient education, hospices, and other programs targeting older adults, mothers and children, the homeless and hungry, the unemployed, substance abusers and the physically and cognitively challenged, and others. Interfaith efforts are highlighted, as well as projects involving community organizing for social change.