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All Things Considered Commentary
National Public Radio
Faith-based Welfare Initiatives
January 2001
There is growing interest in many quarters in faith-based social welfare programs. There is the hope that administering welfare services through the private sector will be more efficient, and perhaps more "caring" than government programs.
Synagogues and churches have always cared for the sick, travelers, the elderly, and the poor. In Roman times Christians created formal welfare agencies administered through the churches, and so it has continued until our own day. Recently, churches begun hiring nurses, social workers, youth workers, and even attorneys to broaden their reach into the community.
Many questions surround the proposal to hand welfare programs over to religious groups, however. Does it violate the separation of church and state? Is it practical to think that the nation's welfare portfolio can be adequately taken up by volunteer organizations, even if they hire professionals? Is it fair to deny nonreligious people the opportunity of caring for the needy? And so on.
A different concern, however, comes from a religious perspective. Religious traditions are primarily in the business of helping people live in God's light, and be built up by others who share their commitments. In study, prayer, and community, people learn to reimagine or rethink themselves as those who belong to God and not to any other siren that calls for their allegiance. They come to link themselves to the cosmic story of God's intentions for human life. They do it by inviting people into the practices of public worship and praise, of prayer and of sacred ritual.
What has gone unnoticed for the most part is that in doing these things in this way, religious communities form persons for mature, productive living. Attending to the words of texts and songs, honoring the history of the community and its leaders, maintaining its programs and activities, and most importantly living in obedience to God, give people an identity and set of tasks that demand their best. This is the foundation of hope for many. The religious life is not simply absorbing a pacifying message of comfort for the sweet by and by. Life with God in community with others calls for living in light of the truth of God, setting life on a higher plane.
Religious communities are the last institutions we should expect to back away from their ministry of forming people. Yet now, even they may find it easier to write a check to hire professional staff than to do the work they have been given to do: give people the foundation and skills to live orderly lives, not for themselves, but for the glory of God. Chasing after government money may only distract them from their true calling.
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