An Evaluation of the Possibilities and Problems of the Faith-Based Initiative

Faith-Based Initiatives and the Bush Administration: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, by Jo Renee Formicola, Mary C. Segers, and Paul Weber, offers several perspectives on the president’s efforts to steer government money to religious groups that provide social services. The authors — all professors of political science — discuss the strengths and weaknesses of Mr. Bush’s ideas. Ms. Formicola, at Seton Hall U., in South Orange, N.J., Ms. Segers, at Rutgers U. at Newark, in New Jersey, and Mr. Weber, at the U. of Louisville, in Kentucky, explore whether the effort encroaches on the separation of church and state and whether it encourages discriminatory hiring practices. The book also includes a case study of a New Jersey effort to involve religious organizations in community-development projects. The authors give their opinions on how a program that involves greater cooperation between religious organizations and government might be able to overcome some of the obstacles that have made it difficult for the Bush administration to fully accomplish its efforts to help religious groups.

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Md. 20706; (800) 462-6420; http://www.rowmanlittlefield.com; 224 pages pages; $68 cloth; $23.95 paper.