Faith-Based Funding

May 30, 2008

George W. Bush has been an advocate for faith-based programs. Paul Lichterman of the USC College’s School of Religion handicaps the next president’s steps.

“Federal funding for ‘faith-based’ social service is likely here to stay, no matter who becomes the next president,” Lichterman says. “Withdrawing support would risk sounding like a vote against religious compassion, in a country where many still assume that religious groups efforts’ to help their communities are both good and efficient.”

Lichterman, associate professor of Sociology and Religion in the USC College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, is an expert on faith-based organizations and the author of Elusive Togetherness: Church Groups Trying to Bridge America’s Divisions. He is also an executive board member at USC’s Center for Religion and Civic Culture.