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Today the U.S. government, through "charitable choice" options, is once again considering handing social service responsibilities to churches. While charitable choice has great potential, the peace policy experiment offers some useful cautions. To quote Abraham Lincoln, "Almost anyone can stand adversity. To test a person's character, give him or her power."

Elesha Coffman is Assistant Editor of Christian History.

More Christian History, including a listing of events that occurred this week in the church's past, is available at ChristianHistory.net. We also strongly encourage you to subscribe to the quarterly print magazine.

Christian History's upcoming issue, "How the West Was Really Won," explores the role of Christians on the American frontier. Subscribe now to get it.

Christian History issue 33: The Untold Story of Christianity & the Civil War, is also available for purchase online.

America's Civil War magazine has a lengthy article about Ely Parker.

For an update on today's "charitable choice" legislation, see ChristianityToday.com's recent news article, "Networking Against Poverty" (Apr. 4, 2000)

Christian History Corner appears every Friday at ChristianityToday.com. Previous Christian History Corners include:

Donne on Death | Poet John Donne's "morbid tendencies" were neither unfounded nor without an attendant hope. (Mar. 31, 2000)

Heaven Can't Wait | Mass suicides, like last week's in Uganda, may be a newer tactic, but the temptation to predict, even force, the coming of kingdom bliss is not. (Mar. 24, 2000)

Forgive and Remember | Pope John Paul II's apology was unprecedented, but not entirely unique. (Mar. 17, 2000)

Modernism's Moses | Harry Emerson Fosdick, one of the century's most controversial Christians, devoted much of his life to fighting fundamentalism. (Mar. 10, 2000)

The Man They Made a Monkey | William Jennings Bryan won the battle but lost the war against teaching evolution in the schools. (Mar. 10, 2000)

Guess Who? | Can you identify the most influential Christians of the twentieth century? (Feb. 29, 2000)

An Ambitious Aboltionist Account | In Tim Stafford's novel Stamp of Glory, the main character is a movement. (Feb. 18, 2000)

The Caged Bird Wrote | If only CBS had chosen a true heroine for Black History Month … (Feb. 11, 2000)

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April (Web-only) 2000, Vol. 44