Faith-based organizations
Faith-based organizations (FBOs) are non-profit entities that are affiliated with religious institutions and provide various social services, often seeking to integrate their spiritual values into their community outreach efforts. The modern prominence of FBOs in the United States was notably influenced by political developments in the early 2000s, particularly under President George W. Bush, who advocated for increased government collaboration with these organizations through initiatives that aimed to expand federal funding for religious charities. This approach raised significant discussions surrounding the separation of church and state, as it allowed religious organizations to receive government funds without the previously strict requirements that mandated the separation of their religious and secular activities.
Critics of the initiative expressed concerns that government funding could compromise the mission of religious organizations and potentially allow discriminatory practices in hiring and service provision. The supportive view, however, posited that FBOs could reach underserved populations more effectively by incorporating faith into their services. Over the years, different administrations have maintained or restructured these initiatives, reflecting ongoing debates about the role of faith in public service and the balance between religious beliefs and secular governance. The evolution of FBOs illustrates the complex interplay of religion, politics, and social service in contemporary society.
Subject Terms
Faith-based organizations
The separation of church and state became a renewed source of debate after President George W. Bush expanded government funding to religious charitable organizations, or faith-based organizations (FBOs), in 2001.
Politically, the popularity of the term "faith-based" began with the Republican Party in the 1990s—most notably by then Texas governor George W. Bush, who in a speech in 1996, said, "Government should welcome the help of faith-based institutions." The earliest known use of the term occurred in 1981, when Clarence Martin, a lobbyist for the Association for the Advancement of Psychology, used the phrase "faith-based values" to deride pervasive religious views in society, such as creationism. Linguistically, William Safire pointed out in a June 27, 1999, New York Times article that the term "faith-based organization" is largely political. As Reverend Bill Callahan of the Quixote Center in Maryland told Safire, "The language of faith-based signals to people our motivation while separating us from the institutions."
Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives
Following his inauguration in 2001, President Bush issued his first executive order to create the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives (OFBCI) in the White House. A subsequent executive order stipulated that a number of government departments, including Justice, Education, and Labor, also establish a Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. The third and most controversial executive order, in 2002, made it easier for religious organizations to receive money by allowing them to circumvent antidiscrimination laws.
The orders were a vast expansion of several laws that President Bill Clinton had signed in the late 1990s as a provision to welfare reform, collectively known as Charitable Choice, which said that religiously affiliated social organizations should not be excluded from competition for government funds, as the White House website explained, "simply because they are religious." The stipulation was the fruit of a political compromise between the president and Republican senator John Ashcroft. Previously, groups like Catholic Charities and Jewish Family Services could not compete with secular organizations for government funds unless they created a separate 501(c)(3) nonprofit and did not attempt to convert aid recipients or discriminate in their hiring practices. After Charitable Choice, these requisites were largely removed, though the Clinton administration interpreted the law more strictly than its successor, refusing money to organizations that could not or would not separate religious practices from their secular organizations.
When he created the OFBCI, Bush, himself an evangelical born-again Christian, was working from policies he had enacted as the governor of Texas that were under the auspices of the Welfare Reform Act of 1996. Originally, President Bush’s plan called for $8 billion in federal grants and vouchers for religious nonprofits that provided social services such as job training, food, and after-school programs. "The premise of the president’s initiative," the New York Times wrote in a July 8, 2001, editorial, "is that some social services can reach some people more effectively if religious practice is a part of the service."
For religious groups who supported the plan, it was a triumph over discrimination; in their view, a wrong—that beneficial programs had been systematically denied government funds because of the separation of church and state—had been righted. However, some religious critics argued that government money might distort the mission of the recipient organizations.
Others—secular and religious people alike—worried that the initiative set a troubling precedent in providing refuge for organizations with discriminatory hiring practices. The legislation, a part of the Charities, Aid, Recovery, and Empowerment (CARE) Act of 2002, stipulated that federal funds were to be used for secular purposes. However, the Texas Freedom Network, a Texas watchdog agency, pointed out that even though the same stipulation existed in the legislation Bush had instated in Texas, government and worship funds had inevitably intermingled. Furthermore, the New York Times wrote, the language of the legislation suggested that organizations could voluntarily proselytize to aid recipients, as long as that recipient had an alternative and secular organization available to them; this was known as the "opt out" provision. But it would be difficult for those in a substance abuse program or a juvenile delinquency program, for example, to claim that right.
In 2007, in Hein v. Freedom from Religion Foundation, a case involving the OFBCI and a group of atheists and agnostics, the US Supreme Court ruled that taxpayers could not challenge executive expenditures. The 5–4 decision reversed a 2006 ruling by the US Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.
Impact
The development of faith-based initiatives and the OFBCI were viewed as a signature of the Bush administration, and many people expected that the election of President Barack Obama would be the end of them. However, President Obama, who made it clear during his 2008 campaign that he supported the program, kept the office and its policies in place, though he renamed it the Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. In 2010, Obama signed an executive order to strengthen "the legal footing" of the government’s relationship with faith-based organizations and encourage transparency. After Obama completed his second term and left the White House in January 2017, President Donald Trump did not appoint a director of the office. Trump later started a new office to help faith-based organizations receive government funds. President Joe Biden, who defeated Trump in 2020, reestablished the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.
Religious groups and others were divided on the success of the program under Bush. David Kuo, a former Bush aide and deputy director of the OFBCI, alleged that the office fell short of Bush’s promises and ultimately became more about politics than good works. Kuo, an evangelical Christian and contributing editor to the website Beliefnet, wrote about his time with the OFBCI in his book Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction (2006).
Bibliography
"Fact Sheet: Biden-Harris Administration Celebrates Third Anniversary of the Reestablishment of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships." The White House, 29 Feb. 2024, www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/02/29/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-celebrates-third-anniversary-of-the-reestablishment-of-the-white-house-office-of-faith-based-and-neighborhood-partnerships/. Accessed 22 May 2024.
"Frontline: The Jesus Factor." PBS. WGBH Educational Foundation, 29 Apr. 2004. Web. 14 Dec. 2012.
Kuo, David. Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction.New York: Free, 2006. Print.
"Mr. Bush’s ‘Faith Based’ Agenda." New York Times. New York Times, 8 July 2001. Web. 14 Dec. 2012.
Safire, William. "The Way We Live Now: 6-27-99: On Language; Faith-based." New York Times. New York Times, 27 June 1999. Web. 14 Dec. 2012.
"The Texas Faith-Based Initiative at Five Years: Warning Signs as President Bush Expands Texas-Style Program at National Level." Texas Freedom Network. Texas Freedom Network, n.d. Web. 14 Dec. 2012.