Faith, Politics, and Power The Politics of Faith-Based Initiatives [Paperback]

During the 2000 presidential campaign, George W. Bush made faith-based social services one of the centerpieces of his domestic agenda. These faith-based initiatives, supporters argued, would reduce poverty, ease the strain on an overburdened welfare system, and prove more effective than government programs. Opponents feared rampant proselytizing with government funds. Instead, these practices created a system in which neither the greatest hopes of its supporters, nor the greatest fears of its opponents, have been realized. The product of five years of in-depth research, Rebecca Sager'sFaith, Politics, and Poweroffers a systematic examination of where and how these programs were implemented, arguing that faith-based initiatives strayed from supporters' original aim of helping the poor, and instead were used as tools to gain political power by the Republican Party and the conservative evangelical movement.

Chapter 1 An Introduction to the Faith-Based Initiatives
Chapter 2 The Historical Role of Religion in Government Social Services and the Development of the Faith-Based Initiatives
Chapter 3 Faith-Based Liaisons: Finding Faith in the Faith-Based Initiatives
Chapter 4 Making the Initiatives the Law of the Land
Chapter 5 Calling All the Faithful: Faith-Based Conferences and Liaison Choices as Symbolic Politics
Chapter 6 Here, There, but Not Quite Everywhere: Why are there Faith-Based Initiatives?
Chapter 7 Religion, Policy, and Politics: Institutionalizing Religion within State Government
Chapter 8 Conclusion: What is Success?

While this book is an academic treatment of faith-based initiatives, it is also accessible to non-academic readers and it will appeal to those interested in faith-based initiatives specifically or in social movements and symbolic policy development more generally. It would be a useful text for an undergraduate social movement class or as a case study in a graduate course on religious social movementls¢