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I asked them, "Why is that?"

One of them said, "People there care about you by showing tough love. They love you, but they also set some standards that they expect us to meet." Another person said, "They are so Christ-like here."

It's not that I would never run into those kinds of comments at mainline Protestant programs, but with the evangelical programs, it seemed like I would come across them more frequently.

What percentage of evangelical programs receive government funding?

One of the surprises was that more evangelical programs were receiving government funding—51 percent, versus 40 percent of the mainline programs.

This carried through also when you looked at the amount of funding: 38 percent of the evangelical programs reported receiving more than half of their funding from the government, compared to 31 percent for mainline programs.

What's the reason for this difference?

That is a tough question. The best I can come up with is this: When you have programs on the street that are working, some of these more theoretical questions (whether religion is being brought inappropriately into the program, if hiring is based on religion, etc.) fall by the wayside. Local and state funding agencies are just asking, "Are these programs getting the job done?" Evangelical programs can compete with anyone else in terms of effectiveness.

What do you say to critics who see incorporating evangelism and religious values as a violation of church-state separation?

Many evangelical programs, when they have Bible studies or devotional activities, make them voluntary. Many of these efforts to encourage clients to make religious commitments are done with private money at a time separate from the other services. That's a partial answer.

But even more fundamentally, we know that government funding cannot be used for sectarian worship, instruction, or proselytizing. Yet those words are not self-defining. If welfare-to-work staff reassure recipients that Jesus loves them, that work is a way to honor God, and that we all have a calling to fulfill in life—is that sectarian instruction? I think not.

Now the ACLU might disagree with me on that. But to me, this is using broad Christian values to help people overcome tremendous obstacles in becoming economically self-sufficient. I attended similar classes at secular nonprofit organizations. They also used values—non-religious values. They would talk about earning the respect of your family by going out to work or feeling better about yourself. But both evangelical and secular programs use values to motivate and improve the self-esteem of their clients.

It's almost impossible to motivate people to undergo a substantial change without inspiring them with some kind of values.

Yes. These programs are working with people who have had some tough experiences, either through mistakes they've made or conditions not of their fault. They've been beaten down. In order to enable them to compete in the job market, you have to encourage them. And if the Christian faith can be used to that end, that's wonderful.

How do the government and faith-based agencies get along?

Whether or not evangelical programs receive government funds, they seem to be part of an informal network of consultation and referral.

A majority of evangelical programs indicated that they sometimes referred recipients to government agencies. And government agencies refer clients to them; sometimes, evangelical agencies are contacted by government agencies just for advice.

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July 2006, Vol. 50, No. 7