“Obama’s Faith-Based Office Launch Delays Key Decision on Faith-Based Hiring”
Read a Feb. 6, 2009, article at U.S. News & World Report about whether or not religious-based groups should be able to hire based on religion using government money.
Category: Church & state
“Legal Questions Remain as Obama Revamps Faith-Based Efforts”
Read a Feb. 6, 2009, Religion News Service story (posted at Crosswalk), about the complications in the adoption of Obama’s faith-based program.
“Obama Expands Faith-Based Office”
Read a Feb. 6, 2009, news story at Christianity Today about the Obama plan. The piece quotes Doug Koopman, co-author of a book on Bush’s faith-based office, among others.
“Obama Signals Higher Church-State Barrier for Faith-Based Office”
Read a Feb. 5, 2009, analysis of the Obama’s faith-based initiative program by Dan Gilgoff of U.S. News & World Report. Gilgoff includes reactions from left and right on the religious spectrum.
“Obama’s New Faith Based Office–Substantive But Leaning Left”
Read a Feb. 5, 2009, analysis of the Obama faith-based initiative program by Beliefnet founder and author Steven Waldman.
“Public Favors Bush’s Faith-Based Charities Initiative”
A July 2001 Gallup Poll analysis discussed several polls on the topic and showed the variance in public approval, which appeared to shift depending on whether respondents associated the initiative with Bush, and what charities they believed would benefit.
“Faith-Based Programs Still Popular, Less Visible”
A November 2009 survey from the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life shows Americans broadly support faith-based programs, and Democrats more so than Republicans, for the first time. Yet a strong majority also has concerns about possible church-state violations.
The Roundtable on Religion & Social Welfare Policy
The Roundtable on Religion & Social Welfare Policy was funded by a Pew grant and ran from January 2002 through December 2008 under the aegis of the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government at the State University of New York. The Roundtable describes itself as “the preeminent source of expert, unbiased information on policy and legal developments […]
“Study shows faith-based initiatives don’t boost church’s social service”
Read arguments from Mark Chaves, a professor of sociology, religion and divinity at Duke University and lead researcher on the National Congregations Study, in which he cites evidence that Bush’s faith-based program “did not broadly change congregations’ behavior in terms of social service activity or their role in the social welfare system.” The comments are in […]