wfn.org | 2002 "YEARBOOK" CONTRIBUTES TO FAITH-BASED INITIATIVE DEBATE

[Carol Fouke <carolf@ncccusa.org>]

National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA
Contact: NCC News, 212-870-2227
E-mail: news@ncccusa.org; Web: www.ncccusa.org
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NCC2/13/02 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

2002 "YEARBOOK" CONTRIBUTES TO FAITH-BASED INITIATIVE DEBATE

	February 13, 2002, NEW YORK CITY - Just as the Bush Administration brings
its faith-based initiative back to the legislative table, the National
Council of Churches' 2002 "Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches"
offers a succinct guide to the emerging consensus on government funding of
faith-based social service.

	In the 2002 "Yearbook's" theme article, "The Fevered Frenzy Over
Faith-Based Initiatives," the Rev. Dr. Eileen W. Lindner describes five
initiatives that made substantial progress over the past year on clarifying
"the issues endemic to a government partnership with religiously based
organizations."

Dr. Lindner, "Yearbook" editor and NCC Deputy General Secretary for Research
and Planning, writes as a participant in all five initiatives.  Their
reports, she says, "will do much to further the national dialogue and ? will
help frame the discussion so that progress is attained in both social
welfare and constitutional understanding."

The 2002 "Yearbook" comes out on the heels of President Bush's February 1
appointment of Jim Towey as director of the White House Office of Community
and Faith-Based Initiatives.  Towey fills the vacancy left by John DiIulio's
resignation last May.

It is the second year in a row that the "Yearbook's" chapter is
serendipitously timely.  2001's long-planned essay "Considering Charitable
Choice" was published precisely at the moment President Bush was announcing
his related "faith-based initiative" - sparking heated debate about the
capacity of faith-based institutions to carry out social service with public
funds.

In that essay, Dr. Lindner reviewed all research on Charitable Choice
published in English through December 2001, pointing out gaps and urging
faith-based organizations and government alike to base their decisions about
Charitable Choice on sound research, not on guesswork.

The President's proposals foundered after DiIulio resigned.  Then the
September 11 attacks and the pursuit of an overseas war drew public
attention away from practically everything else for a time.

	"Yet, an economic slow-down and the persistent commitment of the religious
community to the poor cause us to return to this theme and once again
document the significant advances in framing the national debate that must
inevitably accompany any legislation that would extend the concepts of
Charitable Choice to broader areas of social service provision by
faith-based organizations," Dr. Lindner writes in her 2002 essay.

	Religiously-based efforts to alleviate human suffering have a long history,
but religious and civil libertarians are concerned "that important American
traditions of church/state separation could be imperiled by the rush to find
the kind of cost-effective delivery of social services that would enable
politically popular tax cuts," she writes.

	"Moreover, faith-based organizations, over time, could grow dependent on
public monies and shrink from social criticism, thereby forsaking the
prophetic witness they sought to offer," Dr. Lindner says.  "Only by
engagement of persons from varying points of view could an approach be
envisioned to enable partnerships at the community level that utilized the
most trusted local resources fueled with public dollars to promote
individual and community development."

	Dr. Lindner commends the following five initiatives to readers' attention:

7	"Partnership or Peril," published in May 2001 by the First Amendment
Center.  Call 800-830-3733 or download from www.freedomforum.org for a free
copy.

7	"Faith-Based Initiatives: Sacred Deeds and Secular Dollars," based on a
May 2001 seminar co-sponsored by the Urban Institute's Center on Nonprofits
and Philanthropy and Harvard University's Hauser Center for Nonprofit
Organizations.  Call 202-261-2687 or 877-847-7377 for a free copy.

7	"Religious Organizations and Government," the report of a July 2001
collegium convened by the Aspen Institute's Nonprofit Sector Strategy Group.
Call 202-736-5811 for a free copy.

7	"Sacred Places, Civic Purposes: Should Government Help Faith-Based
Charity?," a book released in December 2001 and based on a series of
Brookings Institution conferences.  Available for $20.95 by calling
800-275-1447 or 202-797-6258 or visit www.brookings.edu.

7	"Finding Common Ground: 29 Recommendations of the Working Group on Human
Needs and Faith-Based and Community Initiatives," the product of a broadly
bi-partisan Working Group led by former U.S. Senator Harris Wofford (D-Pa.)
at the request of U.S. Senator Rick Santorum (R-Pa.).  Jim Towey served as
staff to the Working Group.  Call 202-265-4300 or download from
www.working-group.org

	"Working intensively from June through December, this report goes further
perhaps than others in framing and surveying the topographical features of
the common ground that must be occupied if the needs of America's poor and
the demands of the constitutionally mandated separation of church and state
are both to be addressed," Dr. Lindner writes.

The 2002 "Yearbook" may be ordered by e-mail (yearbook@ncccusa.org); phone
(888-870-3325); fax (212-870-2817); or mail (Yearbook Orders, National
Council of Churches, Room 880, 475 Riverside Drive, New York, NY 10115).
Cost is $55 including shipping.

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