Pluralism and Freedom Faith-Based Organizations in a Democratic Society

by Monsma, Stephen V.

• ISBN13: 9781442214309
• ISBN10: 1442214309
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-12-09
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Summary

Faith-based organizations play a major role in providing a host of health, educational, and social services to the public. Nearly all these efforts, however, have been accompanied by intense debate and numerous legal challenges. The right of faith-based organizations to hire based on religion, the presence of religious symbols and icons in rooms where government-subsidized services are provided, and the enforcement of gay civil rights to which some faith-based organizations object all continue to be subjects of intense debate and numerous court cases. In Pluralism and Freedom, Stephen Monsma explores the question of how much autonomy should faith-based organizations retain when they enter the public realm? He contends that pluralism and freedom demand their religious freedom be respected, but that freedom of all religious traditions and of the general public and secular groups be equally respected, ideals that neither the left nor the right live up to. In response, Monsma argues that democratic pluralism requires a genuine, authentic'¬ ;but also a limited'¬ ;autonomy for faith-based organizations providing public services, and offers practical, concrete public policy applications of this framework in practice.

Author Biography

Stephen V. Monsma is senior research fellow at the Henry Institute at Calvin College and professor of political science emeritus at Pepperdine University. He is the author of numerous works on faith-based organizations and church and state relations, including Faith, Hope, and Jobs and Putting Faith in Partnerships.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. ix
The Issue That Will Not Go Away	p. 1
Diversity, Pluralism, and Autonomy	p. 4
Two Sets of Questions	p. 8
A Conflict of Theoretical Concepts	p. 12
The Plan of the Book	p. 14
Faith-Based Organizations and the Network of Human Services	p. 15
Faith-Based Organizations in the Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector	p. 16
International Emergency Relief and Long-Term Development	p. 20
Adoption and Foster Care Services	p. 26
The Michigan Prisoner Reentry Initiative (MPRI)	p. 34
Conclusions	p. 42
The Seedbeds of Attitudes towards Faith-Based Organizations	p. 45
The Liberal Enlightenment, the Founding Era, and the Young Nation	p. 46
The Supreme Court, Church-State Relations, and Faith-Based Organizations	p. 58
Nondiscrimination Measures and Faith-Based Organizations	p. 77
Conclusions	p. 81
The Partisan-Political Landscape Today	p. 83
Faith-Based Organizations and the Left	p. 84
Faith-Based Organizations and the Right	p. 100
Structural Pluralism in Christian Democratic Thought	p. 117
Religious Freedom in the Context of Church-State Separation	p. 118
Structural Pluralism and Christian Democracy	p. 121
Contemporary Structural Pluralism	p. 139
Structural Pluralism and the American Polity	p. 141
Faith-Based Organizations in a Pluralistic Public Square Applications	p. 145
Three Basic Perspectives	p. 145
Specific Issues: Government Funds and Religious Hiring Rights	p. 151
Specific Issues: Religious Elements in Government Subsidized Services	p. 158
Specific Issues: Nondiscrimination and Hiring and Membership Standards	p. 166
Specific Issues: Requiring Faith-Based Organizations to Provide Services They Find Religiously Objectionable	p. 177
Notes	p. 185
Selected Bibliography	p. 213
Index	p. 219
About the Author	p. 227
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.