How faith-based social service organizations manage secular pressures associated with government funding

✍ Scribed by James R. Vanderwoerd

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2004
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 135 KB
• Volume: 14
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1048-6682
• DOI: 10.1002/nml.33

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

This article reports selected findings from a qualitative case study of two faith‐based social service
organizations to address two questions: (1) How does government funding influence the religious
characteristics of faith‐based social service organizations? (2) How do
government‐funded, faith‐based social service organizations manage the tensions arising from both
secular and religious contexts? The findings suggest that the adaptation of secular institutional practices
is not as inevitable as some have feared. Rather, the two organizations studied showed convincingly that their
faith traditions and values were alive and widely evident throughout their organizations. Three key strategies
emerged as means for maintaining religiousness in the face of secular pressures: (1) Religious
identities were perceived as given rather than chosen, and therefore were not negotiable; (2)
religious values provided strong justification for seeking relationships with others who do not share their
faith; (3) the religious worldview blurred religious and secular distinctions so that secular
technologies and practices could comfortably be utilized.