Saving America?
Wuthnow, Robert & Dillon, Michele
SERVICE PROJECTS Saving America? faith-Based Services and the t uture of Civil Society Robert Michele Dillon n March of this year, the ambiguity of the boundaries between church and state in the...
...congregations, faith-based and other service organizations, and the federal government each contribute in discrete and at times overlapping ways toward building a good society...
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...It is not surprising then—though it is often forgotten during political debates—that faith and religious values inevitably penetrate, some-times quite subtly, non-faith-based service organizations...
...Public officials who favor faith-based services tend to assume that religion by definition is a good thing and should be supported by the government...
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...Moreover, the volunteer work organized by congregations is usually related to church and school activities rather than to services for the poor or otherwise needy people in the community...
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...Wuthnow emphasizes the importance of distinguishing between congregations and faith-based and secular service organizations...
...The Pennsylvania community survey shows that the poorest in the community (households with less than $20,000 annual income) were more likely to seek economic rather than spiritual or emotional assistance...
...The California Supreme Court ruled that the Catholic Church's moral opposition to artificial contraception was insufficient reason for Catholic Charities not to provide medical insurance to its employees that would cover the cost of contraception...
...The ruling drew attention not only to the legal and political complexities in defining what constitutes a religious organization, but to the difficulties in determining when a religious organization is a faith-based organization and when it is a social-service provider/employer...
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...But, as Wuthnow highlights, there is "little evidence that [faith-based organizations] are perceived as being more effective than secular nonprofits," and there is no evidence "that clients perceive faith-based organizations to be any less effective than secular nonprofits...
...As he remarks at the outset, this debate is dominated by quite a bit of misunderstanding of religion and how it functions in society...
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...The balanced evaluative perspective Wuthnow brings to his data suggests that one type of service organization cannot or should not replace another...
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...CA 90015 phone: 310 338-2799 e-mail: CRS@ltnu.edu hupa~exle~asion.lnw.edu Loyola Marymount Universi Los Angeles, CA sectarian organizations fell somewhere between...
...For example, while churches pro-vide various opportunities for engaging in volunteer activities, they are not effective as civic spaces for members to discuss issues of economic inequality...
...In Saving America?, Robert Wuthnow wades into the increasingly politicized debate about the nature, functions, and social implications of faith-based socialservices...
...Congregations, he suggests, may not be as well equipped as nonsectarian and religious service organizations (like Catholic Charities) to deal with severe economic problems, but they may be more at-tractive options for people experiencing emotional, spiritual, or health-related difficulties...
...He also draws upon hundreds of interviews with clients, employees, and clergy at various service agencies...
...Catholics are also more likely than Evangelical or mainline Protestants to hear sermons about inequality and caring for the poor...
...Wuthnow—as readers of his many previous books would expect—enters this debate armed with good empirical data, which he deftly uses to map out the many interrelated dimensions of faith-based service activity...
...In Saving America?, Wuthnow provides a much needed, thoughtful empirical analysis of the intertwined relations between churches and social-service activities, and in doing so paints a powerful picture of the mutual interdependence of church and state in American society...
...He uses survey data from three of his own national studies and a community study he conducted in northeastern Pennsylvania that included a survey of households in low-income neighborhoods...
...Wuthnow also notes that volunteers at nonsectarian service programs are likely to be church members, but are more likely to identify as religious liberals than as.conservative or moderate...
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...Wuthnow also dispels the common fear that clients of faith-based services are expected to show deference toward the faith beliefs of the organization in exchange for assistance...
...One challenge then is to find ways to make congregations or parishes stronger and to encourage Americans to be more active within their congregation...
...There is much to learn from his extensive, careful, and clearly presented analyses...
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...Catholics and mainline Protestants, for example, are equally likely to be members of congregations that sponsor food pantries, but the former are more likely than the latter to sponsor tutoring BALOOprograms...
...Michele Dillon is associate professor of sociology at the University of New Hampshire and editor of the recently published Hand-book of the Sociology of Religion (Cam-bridge University Press...
...Wuthnow also provides extensive data on national and community trends in poverty and public (federally funded welfare) assistance...
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...Wuthnow uses these data (mostly pertaining to Christians and Christian congregations and organizations) to ad-dress several questions about faith-based services in contemporary America...
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...Clients of service providers, Wuthnow found, perceived public government welfare least positively while congregations were seen most positively...
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...He concludes, rather, that "faith-based organizations seem not to be any more effective than other service organizations in communicating ideas about faith in general or about unconditional love in particular...
...faith-Based Services and the t uture of Civil Society Robert Michele Dillon n March of this year, the ambiguity of the boundaries between church and state in the United States once again made headlines...
...the religious characteristics, assistance needs, and expectations of low-income individuals...
...Congregations, therefore, are more likely to foster the trust in individuals and institutions that is so necessary to everyday social life...
...and the levels of support for government funding of faith-based organizations...
...Ever sensitive to the socially embedded significance of religion, Wuthnow reminds us that "congregations function as communities"—they encourage long-term relationships and provide caring and sup-port among members that is quite independent of any formal social services they provide...
...Wuthnow points to the many things that churches do, and importantly, can-not do...
...others (including many academics, journalists, and policy analysts), by contrast assume the opposite—that anything vaguely religious should be kept out of policymaking...
Vol. 131 • May 2004 • No. 10
