NCCCUSA ON GOVERNMENT FUNDING OF FAITH-BASED INITIATIVES
The National Council of Churches’ experience with government funding, and our policies about such funding, place the NCC squarely in the middle ground in the current debate. We have first-hand experience of the good that can come from appropriate church/state partnerships. At the same time, we are familiar with the many accompanying questions, both constitutional and practical, and believe a "go slow" approach is important so that those questions can be worked out.
Of course, government funding of faith-based groups is not new. Like many faith groups, the NCC has received government funding for decades – most notably, in our case, for work to resettle refugees in U.S. communities. The work has been carried out by Church World Service, the international service and witness ministry of the NCC.
This successful public/private partnership, which involves the participation of NCC member denominations and their congregations, provides a supportive environment for many refugees who are beginning new lives in the United States.
The resettlement program grows out of our faith commitment "to welcome the stranger," as the Bible puts it – but the program does not require that refugees participate in the congregations that resettle them. Furthermore, the congregations provide volunteers and in-kind donations to help the newcomers get started, extending the value of tax dollars used for refugee resettlement.
The "Charitable Choice" provision of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act of 1996 requires states to permit faith-based organizations to be eligible, along with other nonprofit organizations, to accept government funding for social service programs. The Bush Administration’s Faith-Based Initiatives program promotes such partnerships and has created the first federal office intended to encourage – and finance – faith-based and community groups’ social services programs.
While some research has already been done on Charitable Choice, much remains to be learned about its actual effects for government agencies, faith-based providers of social services and the people they serve. The editor of the NCC’s "Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches," Dr. Eileen Lindner, has issued a call for sound research into all aspects of the Faith-Based Initiative. Her essay on "Considering Charitable Choice" appears in the 2001 "Yearbook" and also can be read online.
We urge an openness to exploring how a new level of public/private partnership might serve the common good, and especially to end poverty.
March 2001
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