National Politics and Charitable Choice as Urban Policy for Community Development

The Faith-Based and Community Initiative (FBCI) constitutes a critical substitution of social policy as new urban policy. The faith-based initiative envisions a formalized role for local religious congregations in social services provision and the corresponding role of policy implementation. Both of these rather novel policy ideas raise a host of questions. This article seeks to provide an understanding of this policy initiative, its ideational origins, its real potential, and some of its limitations as an instrument of urban policy and community development. This article encompasses four objectives. First, it provides an overview discussion of the evolution of the U.S. urban policy context and the emergence of “stealth urban policies.†Second, it focuses on the philosophical and scholarly formulations that conceived of local congregations as alternative mechanisms for the provision of social welfare state services. Third, the discussion turns to some of the findings to date regarding the FBCI that point up its limitation as effective public policy for supporting community development in black neighborhoods. Finally, the discussion explores how the FBCI might be expanded to support a more effective role for religious organizations in urban community development. While this initiative includes temples, mosques, churches, and other religious organizations, this article focuses on churches.