Why "Faith-Based" Is Here to Stay: The Broad Shift in Strategy for Providing Services

In: Policy review: the journal of American citizenship, Heft 157

Abstract

Examines the historical basis of the new church-state order in the US, arguing that George W. Bush's faith-based initiative does not represent a new front in the culture wars as some insist. After noting President Barack Obama's intention to retain much of Bush's faith-based initiative, background to the initiative is provided. The origins of the faith-based initiative are seen to be rooted in the Great Depression & the New Deal, & it is asserted that the legal & political evolution from equal access to charitable choice to faith-based initiative depends to some extent on changes in welfare spending that spurred closer church-state cooperation. The structural pattern of this cooperation is divided into two phases in policy history; pertinent constitutional law & legislation are identified. Attention is then given to constitutional scholar Noah Feldman's (2005) church-state proposal. D. Edelman