Earlier this month, a new report suggested that the vaunted faith-based initiative of the Bush administration had failed to increase the number of churches receiving federal funds or the percentage of those engaged in providing social services. A response in Christianity Today by Stanley Carlson-Thies argues that critics miss the point by surveying the work of churches.
They should have been looking, instead, to see whether federally funded programs (operated by state and local governments, as well as by the feds) have truly become hospitable to the wide range of faith-based providers of social services: hospitable to those that are obviously religious along with those whose religion has been muted or side-lined (sometimes in the hope of easing the search for government funds). Unfortunately, this kind of research and commentary has been scarce.
