PJR Vol. 6 2017, Freedom to Serve the Vulnerable Religion has played an integral role in the development of America’s diverse nonprofit sector. Directly and indirectly, religiously motivated beliefs have led to the creation of organizations providing services related to education, social welfare, advocacy, and health. In fact, faith-inspired groups are often at the forefront of devising creative solutions to support the flourishing of vulnerable neighbors. For example, churches and other religious associations provided the earliest child welfare services. Because of dedicated religious action, America’s social safety net today is woven together by the work of sacred and secular nonprofit organizations, as well […]

Two Decades of Bipartisan Cooperation on Government Funding and Religion

Carl H. Esbeck & Stanley Carlson-Thies, Monday August 22, 2016

For many Christians, our citizenship can best be characterized by the hope that it is somebody else’s job. I am regularly told what I should do or not do to “fix our broken government,” where government is always the adversary, the sole arbiter of our society’s disagreements, or the chief provider for the common good. I am more frequently told that when one looks at the extent of injustice in the world, being a responsible citizen seems overwhelming and futile.  A core part of our vision at the Center for Public Justice is to equip citizens to understand that citizenship is […]

The short answer is, of course, No–despite the very strong and growing current tendency of many activists and policymakers to assume that there is only one right way to carry out various important activities and that the government must enforce on private organizations and persons that one right way. Yes, sometimes there really is only one standard that all must live up to: no abuse of children, for example. But often the government can, and should, accommodate different ways to pursue the common good, different conceptions of justice. Indeed, deference to diverse paths and patterns is fundamental to the American experiment, […]