The Varieties of Faith‐Related Agencies

Abstract

Smith is an associate professor of public affairs at the Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs at the University of Washington. He is also editor of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly. His recent publications examine the transformation of social services, new approaches to policy analysis, systems change in workforce-development programs, and the government-nonprofit relationship. His ongoing research focuses on the role of religion in nonprofit service agencies and the restructuring of social services in advanced industrial countries. Email: smithsr@u.washington.edu.Michael R. Sosin is the Emily Klein Gidwitz Professor at the School of Social Service Administration, The University of Chicago. He also is the editor of Social Service Review and an affiliate of numerous research centers. Recent publications examine the organization of managed care in outpatient substance abuse programs, the role of organizational factors in service intensity, and the evaluation of treatment programs. He also is continuing his investigations of the role of religion in nonprofit social service organizations.Although some recent literature suggests religious social service agencies can help governments reach important social program goals, the true social organization and services of the agencies remain in dispute. This article interviews officials in the wide class of "faith-related" agencies in two cities to consider two aspects of this issue: the ties or "coupling" of agencies to faith, and the impact of coupling on agency structure and service programming. The results suggest that many sampled agencies are loosely tied to faith in terms of resources, more tightly coupled in terms of authority, and moderately coupled with respect to culture; that certain aspects of service-delivery technology are heavily secularized in many agencies; that faith is more influential in such matters as the agencies' choices of services; and that the larger, potentially more secularized agencies that might be least likely to be characterized as faith based balance differing sets of resources and thereby can more fully deliver services that arguably express faith in action. Given this finding and that most agencies profess a focus on protecting the dignity and rights of clients rather than on individual responsibility or other themes that are stressed by some recent policy proposals, governments need to be extremely selective in funding agencies to promote those proposals' themes.The use of religious agencies in publicly funded social service programs is advocated by politicians, contemporary public policy makers, essayists, ministers, and many lay people. The benefits of religion are touted for dealing with such vexing social problems as poverty, child welfare, juvenile justice, inner city gangs, and drug abuse (

Envisioning Religiously Diverse Partnership Systems among Government, Faith Communities and FBOs

“…Many scholars and policymakers alike presumed that organizations offering secularized services would become more secular over time [45]. Starting with a Reagan-era speech, these large, multi-service non-profits were equated with the uncaring, bureaucratic services of government ( [3], p. 23).…”

“…While critics argued for separation of church and state through a variety of mechanisms, both scholars and policymakers attempted to identify the faith base in organizations, so that they could determine if openly religious providers were "better" than secular nonprofits or those that did not use religious elements in their programming. Numerous scholars and a policy committee created a series of scales, most relying on outward signs of religiosity, to identify the level of faith in an organization [15,45,[47][48][49]. Generally, the scales included a number of gradations varying from secular to faith integrated, with the faith-integrated programs using prayer and other religious elements in their programming and generally suffusing religion throughout their programs.…”

Faith-based Organizations and Microfinance: A Literature Review

“…Jeavons (1997) proposed seven dimensions and these were also enumerated by Sider and Unruh (2004) as, "organizational self-identity, selection of organizational participants (staff, volunteers, funders, and clients), sources of resources, goals, products, and services (including "spiritual technologies"), information processing and decision making (e.g., reliance on prayer and religious precepts for guidance), the development and distribution of organizational power, and organizational fields (including program partners)" (p. 111). Smith and Sosin (2001) also analyzed several institutions to study how faith is present in an organization and suggested that the presence of faith can be found in the form of "resource dependency, authority and organizational culture". The availability of funds, control of religious institutions or personalities, the influence of faith in the organizational design are some of the important factors that they found to be shaping the uniqueness of faith-based organizations.…”

“…So, in a highly involved organization, it may be mandatory for the staff to attend the prayers or rituals whereas it may be voluntary in other cases. Jeavons (1997Jeavons ( , 2004 organizational self-identity, selection of organizational participants (staff, volunteers, funders, and clients), sources of resources, goals, products, and services (including "spiritual technologies"), information processing and decision making (e.g., reliance on prayer and religious precepts for guidance), the development and distribution of organizational power, and organizational fields (including program partners) Smith and Sosin (2001) resource dependency, authority and organizational culture Berger (2003) Not only in programmes but pervasiveness of faith Unruh (2004) Self-descriptions, sacred objects, invitations to religious activities, prayer, use of sacred texts, worship, sharing of personal testimonies, religious teachings, and invitations to a personal faith commitment Ebaugh et al (2006) Service, Staff, and Organizational dimensions Goggin and Orth (2002) Faith Integration Scale (organization, administration, environment, funding, and programme) Aiken (2010) change in the community; theology and development goals; selection of beneficiaries; programme design and implementation; staff motivation and faith in internal practice James (2004) structural affiliation and governance; values and staff motivation; mission; strategy and theory of development; selection of partners and choice of beneficiaries; faith practices and teaching in programming; staffing and leadership; organisational culture and decision-making; constituency and sources of funding; and external relationships Source: Literature Survey…”

Charitable Choice and Faith-Based Welfare: A Call for Social Work

“…The new actors are congregations that are not required to incorporate and fundamental religious groups (formerly described by the U.S. Supreme Court as "persuasively sectarian") that are incorporated but refused public funds because they perceived it as "going secular." In fact, three recent studies showed that some faith-based providers lost their religious edge and became more secular after receiving public funds (Campbell, 2002;Chambre, 2001;Smith & Sosin, 2001). …”