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Leading scholars examine how the church, community organizations, and the government must work together to provide for America's poor in the aftermath of welfare reform. Not since the 1930s was the question posed by the 1996 welfare reform law so dramatically restated: Who in this new, post welfare-state era is responsible for social provision? This legislation up-ended our familiar notions of government and charity. Emerging from The Center for the Study of Values in Public Life at the Harvard Divinity School, the essays in Who Will Provide? address several important aspects of this challenging situation. They trace the long history of American social programs, voluntary associations, and religious organizations. They explore the need for a new kind of public religion that faces the plurality of America today. They focus on social action as a calling. They examine the Roman Catholic Church's involvement in welfare and look at the perils of the charitable choice provisions outlined in the welfare reform law. Working beyond the policy squabbles of the 1990s debate to the historical, moral, legal, and philosophical issues raised, these Harvard scholars argue that all of us, at some level, are called to step into the breach. "Our nation finds itself in the midst of an unexpected vigorous public discussion about what happens to those in need now that 'welfare as we know it' is gone. Much of that discussion however is historically ill-informed and philosophically thin. [Who Will Provide?] supplies the necessary ingredients to enrich and deepen the debate, and to give it focus." -Harvey Cox, Harvard University
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Who Will Provide? This Page Intentionally Left Blank Who Will Provide? The Changing Role of Religion in American Social Welfare edited by Mary Jo Bane, Brent Coffin, Ronald Thiemann Center for the Study of Values in Public Life Harvard Divinity School A Member of the Perseus Books Group All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Copyright 0 2000 by Westview Press, A Member of the Perseus Books Group Published in 2000 in the United States of America by Westview Press, 5500CentralAvenue, Boulder, Colorado 80301-2877, andinthe United Kingdom by Westview Press, 12 Hid's Copse Road, Cumnor Hill, Oxford OX2 9JJ Find us on the World Wide Web at www.westviewpress.com Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data W h o will provide? : the changing role of religion in American social welfare / edited by Mary Jo Bane and Brent Coffin. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8133-3876-X (alk. paper) 1. Socialservice-United Sates. 2. ChurchCharities-United States.4.NonprofitorganiStates. 3. Publicwelfare-United zations-United States. I. Bane, Mary Jo. 11. Coffin, Brent. HV91 .W497 2000 361.7'5'0973-dc27 00-063303 The paper used in this publication meets the requirements of the American National Standard for Permanenceof Paper for Printed Library Materials 239.48-1984. 1 0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Contents Foreword: David Little Preface: Mark H. Moore Acknowledgments Introduction: Mary Jo Bane and Brent Coffin vii ix ... x111 1 Part One Social Provision in Historical Context 1 Theda Skocpol, Religion, Civil Society, and Social Provision in the U.S. 21 2 Ronald Thiemann, Samuel Herring and Betsy Perabo, Risks and Responsibilities for Faith-Based Organizations 51 Part Two Public Religion and Social Provision 3 Francis Schiissler Fiorenza, Justice and Charity in Social Welfare 4 73 1.