Community Building

4 The World as It Should Be Faith-Based Community Development in America

Generations of anthropologists have sought to comprehend the diversity of communities in America. Literally hundreds of ethnographic studies have been carried out—ranging from early efforts to salvage the spirit of Native American cultures to more recent projects designed to understand inner-city ethnic populations, middle-class suburbs, and even farming, fishing, and mining communities. Within the genre of American community studies, considerable effort has been made to analyze local religious practices. Yet, for all the ethnographic attention to beliefs and traditions, symbolism and syncretism, little has been written by anthropologists about a long-standing feature of American religious practices: the role of faith-based organizations in transforming communities. The significance of faith-based organizations in American life has been affirmed by none other than the president of the United States: “Faith-based and other community organizations are indispensable in meeting the needs of poor Americans and distressed neighborhoods .…[By this Executive Order] there is established a White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives…that will have lead 71 4 The World as It Should Be Faith-Based Community Development in America Robert V. Kemper and Julie Adkins 71 responsibility…to establish policies, priorities, and objectives for the Federal Government’s comprehensive effort to enlist, equip, empower, and expand the work of faith-based and other community organizations to the extent permitted by law” (President George W. Bush, Executive Order, January 29, 2001). The sheer size of the religious sector in America suggests its potential as a player in community development programs. Recent surveys by Independent Sector (2000:5) estimate that in 1997 there were more than 353,000 religious congregations, synagogues, mosques, temples, and other places of worship in the United States, with a collective annual budget of more than $80 billion. For example, since 1983, the Los Angeles United Methodist Urban Foundation (based at First United Methodist Church of Los Angeles) has given some 300 grants totaling $3.3 million to more than 200 different faith-based and social justice agencies in the metropolitan region. Recently, the Urban Foundation has become a faith-based intermediary, positioned to receive grants (more than $1.4 million to date) and to offer capacity building and technical assistance to other agencies. The Urban Foundation also supports the Mildred M. Hutchinson Chair of Urban Ministry at Claremont School of Theology, where Professor Michael Mata works in clergy education and community-oriented ministries training (information included with LAUMUF 1999 annual report). Beyond local congregations, other faith-based enterprises include numerous higher-level denominational agencies, their social service agencies (for example, Catholic Charities and the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, Lutheran Social Services, the Presbyterian Health, Education and Welfare Association), and independent faithbased organizations with diverse missions (for example, Habitat for Humanity International, The Salvation Army, YMCA, and YWCA). The following two examples demonstrate the contributions of regional and cooperative community development ministries. In the western part of Maine, nine Presbyterian churches in 1954 formed a cooperative parish ministry known as MATE (Mission at the Robert V. Kemper and Julie Adkins 72 Eastward). Serving a mainly rural area, this cooperative is dedicated to community development broadly defined, including housing ministries , a nursing program, youth programs, and employment programs (Waldkoenig and Avery 1999:152–186). In West Virginia, the Commission on Religion in Appalachia (CORA) was created in 1965 to bring churches and community groups together in partnership with the people of the region. Working with communities to confront the structural causes of injustice in Appalachia, CORA helps people become powerful enough to control their own lives. CORA supports numerous projects, including Project EAR (Economics in the Appalachian Region) and the Appalachian Development Projects Coalition (ADPC), and also encourages cooperative congregational development enterprises. The newest program, based in Jellico, Tennessee, is the Woodland Development Corporation ’s Individual Development Account program, which helps people to achieve their saving goals and to draw on matching funds for purchasing tangible assets (CORA web site). In addition, a few national faith-based enterprises focus primarily on community development and organizing issues (for example, Industrial Areas Foundation, the Gamaliel Foundation, Direct Action and Research Training [DART], and Pacific Institute for Community Organization [PICO]). These community-organizing networks are discussed in greater detail later in this chapter. In contemporary America, traditional institutions such as families, schools, the courts, and all levels of government seem to have fallen on hard times as bastions of...