|
|
Ask the Expert • Pop
Quiz |
How effective would President Bush’s
proposal be to give federal funds to faith-based organizations for
community improvement projects, and would such a program present problems
of separation of church and state?
During my research in Chicago on church social outreach
programs, I found that there were about 1,500 volunteer tutors and
mentors, mostly from churches, and approximately forty church-based
outreach programs, other nonprofit organizations, and government agencies
working in the Cabrini-Green neighborhood. These efforts were directed
at the mere 2,500 school-age children who, according to government
statistics, lived in the neighborhood.
While many individual lives were transformed, faith-based
efforts did not noticeably change the world of Cabrini-Green; that
has been left to the bulldozers and property developers. If such a
substantial coalescence of church efforts failed to make a significant
impact on this neighborhood, how much can we expect from the expansion
of such programs now promised by the Bush administration?
I would argue for cautious expectations. It is certainly
true that churches do have two potential advantages over government
agencies. First, church members endow their volunteer efforts and
financial giving with a religious meaning—a meaning that is not
normally associated with paying taxes. Second, recipients of church
assistance sometimes find their lives transformed as they start to
participate in the life of the church and live by its values.
We found that churches using the first advantage created
large programs that often changed the lives of the volunteers. However,
the most effective programs used the second advantage, transforming
the recipients by bringing them within the religious meaning and value
system of the church.
If effectiveness is dependent upon the religious values
really “getting under the skin” of the recipient, this presents
a dilemma: The more effective the programs, the more likely they are
to try to incorporate recipients into the churches, and thus the greater
the likelihood that they will tread on that tricky church-state border.
But if the churches keep their distance, in religious terms, from
the recipients of their aid, the less likely they are to be effective.
—Matthew J. Price is associate director, Duke Pastoral Leadership
Project, for the Divinity School. |
We asked students in a magazine journalism course:Do you keep up
with the daily
news, and if so, what specific news sources do you turn to?
This is clearly a mixed-media generation—even as the Internet
seems to loom large in the mix. Third-year law student Revella Cook
says most of her news comes from television, including CNN and the
local Fox affiliate’s 10 o’clock news program. Through a
program available to freshmen, Alex Garinger gets The New York Times
free of charge every day, and he says he reads the first section and
the arts pages. He also samples CNN along with MSNBC.com, Salon. com,
and aintitcoolnews.com, a movie-news website.
Another staunch Internet advocate, Tim Perzyk ’02, says,
“Generally, I find online resources most appealing, as I needn’t
wade through dirty pages of newsprint or endure television commercials.”
He does subscribe to The Wall Street Journal, but “I normally
read only the front page.”
Tara Bergen ’03 and Emily Grey ’03 are among
those who get the headlines from The Times e-mailed to them every
day; Bergen says she usually reads “the major news,” which
is available electronically through links to the headlines.
Troy Clair ’03 finds himself drawn to network websites,
such as CBSnews.com and CNN.com, along with Salon.com. He adds, “I
have watched live webcasts of the trials in Florida over the election,
portions of the Ashcroft hearings, speeches by the president, and
other events.” When major news is breaking, Caroline Wilson ’02
will “log on to NY Times.com once a day, as I did during the
2000 election.”
Brad Balukjian ’02 and Shawn Nicholls ’02 look
to MSNBC.com for headlines. Neither student, though, is Internet-exclusive.
Balukjian subscribes to Raleigh’s News & Observer. Nicholls
gets The New York Times print version, though, he notes, “My
coursework often keeps me from making it through The Times.”
And in a tribute to the campus media—or in a statement
about student priorities in information-seeking—Patrick Adams
’01 says more often than not, “It’s The Chronicle”
that he turns to for his daily news digest. |
|
