Articles

Matters of Faith: Religion in Public Life

Opinion by Doug Gatlin
Faith And The City
March-April 2001 newsletter

In March 2000, a group of 57 men and women from government, business, labor, law, academia, nonprofit organizations, the media, and different religious faiths and faith-based organizations gathered for the Ninety-Sixth American Assembly to examine Matters of Faith: Religion in Public Life. This was the second session in a new series from the American Assembly, an affiliate of Columbia University. The series, Uniting America: Toward Common Purpose, is designed to help reverse some of the most difficult and divisive forces in our society. Following are excerpts from the gathering's final report, Matters of Faith: Religion in Public Life.


Religious Voices in the Public Square

Americans should recognize that they live in a country with strong and flexible institutions, and a remarkable capacity for living with -- and sometimes resolving -- intensely conflicting views without recourse to violence. Religious voices are a vital component of our national conversation, and should be heard in the public square. We reject the notion that religion is exclusively a private matter relegated to the homes and sacred meeting places of the faithful, primarily for two reasons. First, religious convictions of individuals cannot be severed from their daily lives. People of faith in business, law, medicine, education, and other sectors should not be required to divorce their faith from their professions. Second, many religious communities have a rich tradition of constructive social engagement and our nation benefits from their work in such varied areas as social justice, civil rights, and ethics. [Emphasis added.]

We encourage people of faith to foster the emergence of a new American generation, one that better comprehends the significance of the increasing religious pluralism in this nation, and its implications for advancing civic dialogue. This will require people of faith to seek to communicate with one another and Americans of no religious convictions in ways that enhance mutual understanding and respect for the civil liberties of everyone. Because of existing realities, the burden for this process falls primarily on members of religious groups that have met wide public acceptance in their communities to help build the connections with members of religious groups that have not yet been fully accepted and to ensure that they are not treated as strangers in their own land.

Religious communities across the land should express clearly their commitment to forging a common ground that allows us to address important issues in the public arena.

Faith-Based Social Services

A central public policy issue at the present time concerns the provision of public funds to religious or "faith-based" organizations to carry out social service programs of one sort or another. For example, the "charitable choice" provision of the 1996 welfare reform legislation specifies that state governments cannot discriminate against religious groups when contracting for services to help move welfare recipients into the workforce, nor can they require such groups to give up their religious values when acting as social service providers. While taking no position on the specifics of that provision, or all of its premises, this Assembly generally supports the concept of cooperation between government and faith-based organizations in the provision of social services. The religious character of their efforts often can be integral to their programs. At the same time, this Assembly acknowledges that taking public money imposes certain obligations on faith-based providers. These include, among other things, both the mandated responsibility not to use government funds for proselytizing, worship activities, and the like, and an obligation to be publicly accountable regarding their administration of social programs. Without laying down specifics, we call upon lawmakers, religious communities, and others involved in social welfare policy to seek to devise a workable cooperative arrangement that assures the religious integrity of providers and of those receiving the services, establishes standards of accountability for their use of the public purse, and ensures the availability of secular alternatives to the services they offer. [Emphasis added.]


(For a full version of Matters of Faith, visit the American Assembly Web site at http://www.americanassembly.org. The organization may be reached also at 475 Riverside Drive, Suite 456, New York, NY 10115, or by calling 212.870.3500.)