Rallying the Armies or Bridging the Gulf: Questioning the Significance of Faith-Based Educational Initiatives in a Global Age

Introduction

In some segments of the educational policy world, a shift is underway from regarding schools as secular, modernizing institutions, separate from religious organizations, to thinking about schools as "faith-starved" institutions that can benefit financially as well as spiritually from partnering with religious groups.¹ National and international lending and aid agencies, including the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the World Bank, increasingly identify religious organizations as key providers of basic education.² Speaking at a March 2004 interfaith conference in Washington, D.C., World Bank President James D. Wolfensohn remarked that "[t]here needs to be something greater than leadership based on economics or leadership based on military power . . .What better place to start than with the faiths?"³ In 1998, Wolfensohn, together with Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey and His Highness the Aga Khan, convened an interfaith organization called the World Faiths Development Dialogue (WFDD) which, in 2000 at a conference held in Nairobi, Kenya, identified education as a priority area of action in sub-Saharan Africa.⁴

The WFDD is at the lead but not alone in declaring that faith-government partnerships are innovative and cost-effective. Direct reference to religious groups' roles in development work is evident, for instance, in a recent series of U.S. executive orders that establish Offices of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives (OFBCI) in eight offices of government, including USAID.⁵ In a speech linked to the USAID website,⁶ for instance, President George W. Bush announced that he will "support the faith-based and community groups who bring hope and healing to those who need mentors," and he noted that the "qualities of courage and compassion that we strive for in America also determine our conduct abroad."⁷ The WFDD and OFBCI differ in important ways. The former, for instance, is an advocacy organization; the latter finances and manages development projects. However, as Katherine Marshall, a World Bank officer who served for a time as a WFDD trustee, notes, "The most important similarity [between the WFDD and the Bush Administration Faith-Based Initiative] is the recognition that in many poor or marginal communities, in both the industrialized and the developing worlds, FBOs [faith-based organizations] play important social transformation roles."⁸

This article describes the cultural and political context within which one U.S. faith group, the Churches of Christ, operates in public schools in Tanzania. While Churches of Christ does not itself receive funding directly from USAID or the World Bank, its mission represents the kind of work that policy leaders of faith-based initiatives describe as ideal.⁹ It provides educational assistance to teachers and students at underfunded schools; it operates from a vision of ethics and social justice without overtly proselytizing; and its leaders seek to reduce poverty and integrate local communities into a global economy.¹⁰

At a broader theoretical level, this essay argues that faith-based initiatives provide a specific way of imagining global interactions. Within the cultural scheme of lending and aid agencies, as well as within the conceptual framework of the Churches of Christ missionaries, faith-based initiatives are seen by participants as counteracting the dehumanizing effects of globalization. Religion is seen as providing a moral base upon which to rebuild a de-territorialized global culture, and education is viewed as a counterbalance to growing global economic inequalities.¹¹ Together, religion and education operate symbolically and instrumentally to motivate and organize nonreligious initiatives. They are used by policymakers and religious leaders alike to inspire a worldwide community that paradoxically lives within, and yet transcends, national and linguistic boundaries and to create a sense of hope for future, better educated citizens.¹² As Wolfensohn put it, religion and education tear down the "imaginary wall" between developed and undeveloped countries; faith-based initiatives "[transcend] economics" and deal "with the essence of humanity and what is right."¹³ Or as President George W. Bush remarked, "The truth of the matter is that [a sense of purpose] comes when a loving citizen puts their [sic...