Last Wednesday, the Roundtable on Religion and Social Welfare Policy held its 2007 Conference, "Acts of Faith: Congregations and Social Services". In connection with the conference, it released two reports. One titled American Congregations and Social Service Programs presents the result of a survey by Prof. John Green on the extent to which religious congregations offer social service programs, and the extent to which they rely on grants to fund the programs. The report found: "less than one-tenth of all congregations reported seeking government grants for social services in the past four years. But nearly one-half said they were likely to increase government grant activity in the future. Overall, the congregations reported higher levels of private agency grant activity, with more than one-sixth having sought a private grant in the last four years. Nearly two-thirds of all congregations said they would likely increase private grant activity in the future." Friday's Chicago Tribune summarizes other portions of the survey.
The second report was The State of the Law 2007: Legal Developments Affecting Government Partnerships with Faith-Based Organizations , written by law professors Ira Lupu and Robert Tuttle. The report covers areas such as standing, legislative earmarks, child custody, various kinds of government grants to faith-based groups, government chaplains, prison activities, and discretionary exclusion of faith-based groups from government programs. [Thanks to Melissa Rogers for the lead.]
