What do Hobby Lobby, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, Wheaton College, World Vision, the Little Sisters of the Poor, and the University of Notre Dame have in common? All are faith-based organizations that have faced pressure to act in ways contrary to their religious beliefs. In this book, two policy experts show how faith-based groups--those active in the educational, healthcare, international aid and development, and social service fields--can defend their ability to follow their religiously based beliefs without having to jettison the very faith and faith-based practices that led them to provide services to those in need. They present a pluralist vision for religious freedom for faith-based organizations of all religious traditions. The book includes case studies that document the challenges faith-based organizations face to freely follow the practices of their religious traditions and analyzes these threats as originating in a common, yet erroneous, set of assumptions and attitudes prevalent in American society. The book also includes responses by diverse voices--an Orthodox Jew, a Roman Catholic, two evangelicals, two Islamic leaders, and an unbeliever who is a religious-freedom advocate--underscoring the importance of religious freedom for faith-based organizations.

Should welfare be abolished because it fosters dependency, or should it be expanded to offer more effective help? Are people poor due to their own irresponsibility or as a result of social injustice? Is the key welfare problem non-work or illegitimacy? Should government help the poor, or is aid a job for the church? Such polarized questions have hampered the quest for constructive welfare reform and have left Christians criticizing each other as mere advocates of a bogus compassion or of a "tough love" that actually lacks love. This book moves beyond such polarities by developing a fuller biblical understanding of personhood, the multiple institutions of society, and the limited yet constructive responsibilities of government. It argues that assistance should aim to restore people and institutions to their diverse responsibilities in a healthy society. For shalom to replace poverty and social decay, families, churches, schools, government, and other institutions must each fulfill its own responsibilities. The topics range from family dysfunction to global economic restructuring, from constitutional disputes about government support for faith-based charities to social science's confusion about causation, and from welfare program changes to policy initiatives to revitalize civil society.