Faith Based Organizations

This paper examines humanitarian assistance practices to understand how approaches followed by various actors address-or fail to address-social vulnerability to disasters. This question is addressed through a study of humanitarian responses in two disaster-affected villages of Baltistan in northern Pakistan. Through analysis of key informant interviews, semi-structured interviews with men and women, group discussions and secondary data sources, we identify how government, non-governmental and faith-based organisations understand and seek to address underlying socio-political processes that define vulnerability. We analyse how knowledges and practices serve to legitimise authority relations between and among humanitarian organisations and local populations. The paper finds that a simplistic understanding of vulnerability-that people with higher losses are more vulnerable and deserve more assistance in comparison to those who suffer lower losses-tends to favour well-off people, as the...

Cross-border solidarity has captured the interest and imagination of scholars, activists and a range of political actors in such contested areas as the US-Mexico border and Guantanamo Bay. Chandra Russo examines how justice-seeking solidarity drives activist communities contesting US torture, militarism and immigration policies. Through compelling and fresh ethnographic accounts, Russo follows these activists as they engage in unusual and high risk forms of activism (fasting, pilgrimage, civil disobedience). She explores their ideas of solidarity and witnessing, which are central to how the activists explain their activities. This book adds to our understanding of solidarity activism under new global arrangements, and illuminates the features of movement activity that deepen activists' commitment by helping their lives feel more humane, just and meaningful. Based on participant observation, interviews, surveys and hundreds of courtroom statements, Russo develops a new theorization of solidarity that will take a central place in social movement studies.

Since 2013, the wars in Iraq and Syria have revived the persecution of Christians of the Middle East as an issue in Europe, in the context of Islamist targeting of religious minorities. The French case is especially revealing of the NGO, ideological and political movements that have emerged to advocate for the “Christians of the Middle East”, or “Oriental Christians” (in French, “Chrétiens d’Orient”, “Christians of the Orient”). The use of this term is far from reflecting the diversity of Christian standpoints with respect to these wars. Rather, both in France and in Syria, it contributes to processes in which identities become redefined.

Since the end of the Cold War, religion has become an ever more explicit and systematic focus of US foreign policy across multiple domains. US foreign policymakers, for instance, have been increasingly tasked with monitoring religious freedom and promoting it globally, delivering humanitarian and development aid abroad by drawing on faith-based organizations, fighting global terrorism by seeking to reform Muslim societies and Islamic theologies, and advancing American interests and values more broadly worldwide by engaging with religious actors and dynamics. Simply put, religion has become a major subject and object of American foreign policy in ways that were unimaginable just a few decades ago.

In Finding Faith in Foreign Policy, Gregorio Bettiza explains the causes and consequences of this shift by developing an original theoretical framework and drawing upon extensive empirical research and interviews. He argues that American foreign policy and religious forces have become ever more inextricably entangled in an age witnessing a global resurgence of religion and the emergence of a postsecular world society. He further shows how the boundaries between faith and state have been redefined through processes of desecularization in the context of American foreign policy, leading the most powerful state in the international system to intervene and reshape in increasingly sustained ways sacred and secular landscapes around the globe.

Drawing from a rich evidentiary base spanning twenty-five years, Finding Faith in Foreign Policy details how a wave of religious enthusiasm has transformed not just American foreign policy, but the entire international system.

February 26, 2011 15:46 MAC-US/ACTION Page-iii 9780230105379 ... February 26, 2011 15:46 MAC-US/ACTION Page-iv 9780230105379 ... First published in 2011 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN® in the United States—a division of St. Martin's Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. ... Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the World, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.

We report here on research which has been undertaken
across the UK to explore the changing contours
of partnership between local authorities and faith
groups and faith-based organisations in the context
of responses to COVID-19. The research examines the
types and amount of joint activity that has emerged
since the pandemic began. It also identifies how
new experiences of collaboration and partnership
point towards changing relationships and mutual
perceptions between local authorities and faith
communities, and what the implications might be for
future policy.

Middle-class progressives in the early 20th Century wanted to transform a corrupt and chaotic industrial America into an "authentic" democracy. But they were led astray by their privilege. Focused on enhancing the voices of individuals, generations of progressives remained blind to the rich culture of "democratic solidarity" infusing labor unions and organizing in poor communities. This book traces the problematic evolution of progressive democracy in America, focusing on schools as a key site of progressive practice. At the same time, it examines alternative strategies for developing more empowering approaches to democratic education and collective action.

This thesis loactes a Christian rationale for human well-being in relation to the doctrine of the triune God. Specifically, this theological inquiry examines the triune God’s work in, and for, creation with a view to identifying the characteristics and dynamics of divine well-being through the intra-trinitarian movement of gift and receipt. This gifting and receiving within the Godhead is identified as ‘Divine self-enrichment’ — defined as God enriching God in the perfection and fullness of God. The mode through which Divine self-enrichment occurs is essentially kenotic. The thesis provides an extended inquiry into the theological logic of kenotic-enrichment, and its implications for human well-being. In particular, the thesis argues that the pattern of kenotic-enrichment is to be discerned in the dynamic economy of God in creation and human life. When humanity exhibits characteristics of kenotic-enrichment identified in the economic Trinity, there we see intimations of the work of God. In this sense, the archetype of divine enrichment is antecedently operative in the creation; where kenotic-enrichment conditions created well-being. The thesis, therefore, argues that a theology of triune self-enrichment provides an alternate, and complementary, theological paradigm for Christian rationale and praxis of international development and humanitarian aid.

Religion has been playing a significant role in the socio-economic development of the society, more specifically of the under privileged people. Religion or Faith based NGOs are one of the pioneering agents of this kind of development. Though the contributions of such organizations; World Vision or Christian Aid for instances, have been evaluated in the Western academia, in Bangladesh the contributions of these Faith Based Organizations have been overlooked for a long time. FBOs have been working in Bangladesh on diverse issues from poverty reduction to health issues. This article in particular will critically assess the role of the Faith Based Organizations in Bangladesh. Apart from their positive contributions, an attempt has been shown to address few criticisms against them such as conversion and terrorist financing.

Faith plays a crucial role in development, yet ‘faith-based’ organisations (FBOs) continue to face ambivalence towards their religiosity and how it may impact upon the development work they do. As a result they have undergone structural changes to ameliorate the pressures arising from mainly government related outcome oriented funding structures. This also relates to the dual role FBO legitimacy plays ensuring both public donations at home and successful outcomes in the recipient country. FBOs have significant advantages over secular organisations in their ability to harness moral will at home and abroad as well as tap into transnational religious networks and local communities in
aid recipient countries. Australian faith based organisations involved in international development are a diverse and underresearched category that is difficult to define. Thus this paper seeks to make inroads into this group of organisations
to better understand them and their missions, the challenges they pose to development and the challenges they face in development.

Religious organizations are among the oldest and most influential institutions in the world. Within the U.S. nonprofit sector, they are more numerous than any other type of organization, receive over one-third of all charitable giving, and appear within almost every subfield. Yet, despite this overwhelming presence, relatively little is known about religious organizations in comparison to secular nonprofit organizations. The limited research on religious organizations leaves a substantial gap in our understanding of this influential field of organizations, and engaging this understudied area offers an opportunity to further our general understanding of who participates in the nonprofit sector and why. This chapter begins with a brief historical overview of research on religious organizations and assesses the roles played by sociologists of religion and organizational scholars in advancing this field of research. Against the backdrop of three prominent organizational theories, the chapter proceeds to describe a wide array of religious organizations demonstrating their active presence across several domains of the nonprofit sector. Following this section, the chapter defines the major types of religious organizations and assesses variation in their levels of religiosity. The next section specifies the special legal protections of religious organizations, especially congregations, and examines the implications of these protections for financial reporting and engaging in political activity. Following an assessment of religious organizations’ distinct legal status, the chapter examines differences among religious organizations and compares their characteristics with those of secular organizations. The chapter concludes by identifying emerging hybrid forms of religious organizations, which embody both religious and secular characteristics and pursue both nonprofit and for-profit aims, as strategic sites for future research to advance understanding of both religious and secular organizations as well as broader developments within the nonprofit sector as a whole.

This agenda setting text explores a broad range of value perspectives and their impact on and contribution to social work thinking on ethics. Including new perspectives, such as Islam, and drawing on international contributors, this is essential reading for all social work students studying ethics and values.

Raymond Aron famously argued that international relations are lived and symbolized by the contrasting figures of the diplomat and the soldier. Nowhere is this dual character of international relations more visible than in the field of international politics of religion: Religious actors have proven to serve as much as sword- weilding instigators as peacekeeping mediators; up until today religion is the cause of conflicts and a way to mediate peace.
The religious factor as a trigger and instrument of mobilization in international politics is raising considerable challenges for diplomats, policy makers and religious actors alike. States and diplomacies are facing the need to build competencies for diplomats working in the field; religious actors find themselves in the vest of a diplomat.
This conference aims to clarify the role of the religious factor in international politics both from the perspective of professional diplomacy as well as from the perspective of religious and secular practicionners of international relations. It asks why is religion relevant to the conduct of Foreign Policy? How do diplomats and other international actors address religion in carrying out policies; how do religious actors position themselves as professionals of international relations?
The specific take on the subject in this conference is motivated by the observation that, for the most part, it has been non-conventional diplomacy initiatives that have developed specific religious approaches in foreign policy-making. Practitionners of Faith-based diplomacy —on national, EU, or NGO levels—, paved the way for analysis through bringing empirical evidence from specific case studies, experiments and practice. Conventional diplomacy, on the other hand, has been much slower in taking religion into account as a factor of foreign policy. One aim of this conference is to bring actors of conventional and non-conventional diplomacy together in order to compare their approaches and assessment of the religious factor in foreign policy conduct.
We invite presentations that mirror the understanding practitionners have of the nature, role and impact of religion in international politics and show the effect of religious engagement in foreign affairs making. The architecture of the conference will facilitate the debate among state and non-state, religious and non-religious actors and it will allow the confrontation between general theoretical accounts and applied theory. Written papers will be requested for the publishing a guide book for national and EU diplomats.

"‘Destined to become a 'must-read', this book injects titanium levels of excitement and promise to all those in social work seeking not just to study the world, but to change it.' - Donna Baines, Professor of Labour Studies and Social Work, McMaster University, Canada

'Do not expect to agree with everything you read here. Indeed, that is precisely why you should read it. It is time to shake up the social work conversation.' - Sue White, Professor of Social Work (Children and Families), University of Birmingham, UK

'This book is a gem' - Linda Briskman, Professor of Human Rights, Swinburne Institute for Social Research, UK

'An important and extremely timely book which will be of great value to all those concerned to place the challenges of inequalities and injustice at the heart of social work.' – Brid Featherstone, Professor of Social Care, The Open University, UK

Fundamental to social work are the values of justice and equality. But it has long been felt that these values are being eroded under a system of capitalist power. Serving to reactivate and refresh social work’s radical tradition to form a new political agenda, The New Politics of Social Work:

• Brings together leading international authors to deliver a critical exploration of the impact capitalism has had on social work

• Paves the way for students and practitioners of social work to take a more transformative, radical approach

This is an important and authoritative book for both advanced level undergraduate and postgraduate students of Social Work."

Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is a philosophy and worldview that
guides people through an intentional process of generating more
of what is good in their lives and communities. In this introductory
workshop, participants are introduced to this affirming and
life-giving approach in a ministry context.

Manley-Tannis, Richard. “Appreciative Inquiry: Exploring the Provocative.” Mandate. Toronto: The United Church of Canada. Fall 2018: 31-34. Print.

Formal succession planning strategies for retiring Baby Boomer generation of leaders in nonprofit organizations (NPOs) are nonexistent in many NPOs, including faith-based NPOs. Top NPO leaders possess vital organizational knowledge and experience. The lack of strategic succession planning adversely affects organizational sustainability and
mission fulfillment. Guided by the conceptual framework of knowledge transfer, the current study supplies a description of succession planning strategies used in faith-based organizations that have Boomer leaders. This multiple case study included 3 faith-based
NPOs in Miami-Dade and Broward Counties in Florida and their top-level leaders. They
supplied descriptions of formal succession planning strategies through semistructured
interviews and through related organizational documents. An inductive analysis of the
data revealed that (a) key leaders were the initiators for developing a strategic plan for
succession, (b) boards of directors were critical to the process, and (c) leadership
transition, planned or unplanned, required preparation and documented policies that must
be reviewed at regular intervals. Leadership development is a valuable practice, which
contributes to succession planning strategy. Influential leaders and board members of
NPOs may receive inspiration to engage in succession planning strategies to maintain
capable and prepared leaders at the top levels of the organizations as a means to ensure
organizational sustainability and mission fulfillment. Positive social change happens in
communities by encouraging a positive societal culture and identity through
uninterrupted NPO services and programs. Improving the lives of community members
enhances the communities in which they live.

Discussions about the gendered experience of Buddhism, especially in the modern period, have often centered on the status of Buddhist women and the changing role of women’s authority and legitimacy vis-a-vis their male counterparts.  Based on fieldwork conducted in Sri Lanka   between 2009-2010, this essay explores some of the conceptual challenges that lay Buddhist women's participation within Buddhist nationalism in Sri Lanka pose to standard liberal conceptions of women's agency and power. Women’s religious giving and charity has played a pivotal role in efforts to sustain a postcolonial Sinhala Buddhist imaginary in Sri Lanka. They derive their power and agency in these nation-building efforts not feminist consciousness within the oppressive patriarchal nationalist project. Instead Sinhala middle-class lay Buddhist women enacted their own privileged place in Sri Lankan society by shoring up culturally prescribed notions of motherhood for the purpose of the elite national...

This research is a case study of the Ramban Synagogue in Jerusalem's Greek colony. The research was conducted in 2014 and refers to the communal development process in the synagogue between the years 2000-2014. In light of this unique experience, the research sheds light on the role of the Israeli Urban synagogue.
This qualitative research is based on seventeen in depth interviews and on the synagogue's archival material. The majority of the interviewees hold managerial positions in the synagogue, and most of them experienced the entire process, from beginning to end.
This research has found that in the past two decades the synagogue rabbi, Rabbi Benjamin Lau, led the synagogue to strengthen its communal character. As a result of this process the synagogue's demand amongst young families increased multi-fold. Simultaneously, the synagogue became more accepting towards various circles excluded in the past.
As in the past, the synagogue's main role remains religious, i.e. facilitating worship and religious study.  In addition to the religious role, this research discusses five other roles reflected by the members of the Ramban synagogue:
• Synagogue is home to a vibrant community thanks to the mandatory routine religious duties preformed in an orthodox synagogue.
• Synagogue is open to diverse participants, including all genders, ages and Jewish religious beliefs.
• Synagogue is an agent of change amongst Jewish Orthodoxy, and promotes the ideology of its members in the national sphere.
• Synagogue functions as a local welfare agency, promoting the welfare of local residents.
• Synagogue recognizes there is religious significance to the State of Israel and the Israeli nation, and shapes much of the religious activity accordingly.

This article demonstrates historically and statistically that conversionary Protestants (CPs) heavily influenced the rise and spread of stable democracy around the world. It argues that CPs were a crucial catalyst initiating the development and spread of religious liberty, mass education, mass printing, newspapers, voluntary organizations, and colonial reforms, thereby creating the conditions that made stable democracy more likely. Statistically, the historic prevalence of Protestant missionaries explains about half the variation in democracy in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Oceania and removes the impact of most variables that dominate current statistical research about democracy. The association between Protestant missions and democracy is consistent in different continents and subsamples, and it is robust to more than 50 controls and to instrumental variable analyses.

En Suisse, comme dans d'autres pays d'Europe occidentale, des associations musulmanes s'organisent pour fournir des prestations à vocation sociale et caritative. Ce phénomène interroge d'abord les évolutions d'un militantisme musulman propre aux sociétés occidentales durant ces dernières décennies. De plus en plus souvent, des mosquées, centres islamiques et collectifs musulmans s'engagent dans les domaines caritatifs et éducatifs, en proposant des services sociaux non seulement aux membres de leurs communautés, mais aussi à des non-musulmans. Quelles sont les causes et raisons d'être de cette action sociale musulmane ? Au-delà d'un militantisme communautaire musulman de plus en plus dense et visible, les mutations des sociétés contemporaines et du champ de l'action sociale participent à l'émergence de ces nouveaux acteurs caritatifs qui jouent sur des références identitaires, culturelles ou religieuses particulières. Plus globalement, l'affaissement de l'Etat-social propre au néolibéralisme questionne la place des acteurs privés de l'action sociale, leurs fonctions et leurs relations vis-à-vis des institutions étatiques. Dans ce contexte, quelles sont les rôles et les spécificités de l'action sociale musulmane ? Comment les associations engagées dans ce champ se positionnent-elles vis-à-vis de la société, de l'Etat et des communautés musulmanes ? Quels sont les objectifs de cet engagement ? Vise-t-il le bien commun de la société dans sa globalité, ou au contraire les intérêts de groupes communautaires restreints ? En d'autres termes, bénéficie-t-il aux musulmans uniquement, ou contribue-t-il à l'intérêt général ? Une étude empirique qualitative de trois expressions d'action sociale musulmane en Suisse, complétée par des recherches en France et en Grande-Bretagne, explore ces enjeux dans une perspective interdisciplinaire mêlant la sociologie, le travail social, les sciences politiques et les études religieuses, en faisant ressortir trois niveaux d'analyse. Premièrement, la place de l'action sociale musulmane dans la société européenne est questionnée, principalement à travers ses objectifs et ses interactions avec les institutions. Dans ce cadre, l'orientation identitaire et confessionnelle de cette action sociale est étudiée dans le contexte d'une société plurielle, en mettant en évidence les tensions entre ses discours d'impartialité et ses logiques communautaires. Deuxièmement, les liens entre ces associations musulmanes et les mouvements idéologiques de l'islam transnational seront questionnés, ce qui impliquera notamment de traiter la question de l'islamisme et d'une instrumentalisation supposée de l'action sociale à des fins prosélytes et politiques. Troisièmement, le développement de l'action sociale en Europe servira de base de réflexion sur les conditions de l'institutionnalisation de l'islam en Europe et l'essor d'une pensée religieuse contextualisée, qui se veut fondatrice d'un islam autochtone et local.

An introduction to community organizing for those new to the field.  We focus on learning how to think like an organizer, not teaching skills. 

A full copy of the pdf is available here, although it's not my site so download at your own risk: 

http://xyonline.net/sites/xyonline.net/files/2019-11/Schutz%2C%20Collective%20Action%20for%20Social%20Change%20-%20An%20Introduction%20to%20Community%20Organizing%20%282011%29.pdf

This paper offers new theoretical and empirical insights into the emotional and spiritual geographies of religion in therapeutic landscapes designated for marginal and vulnerable populations. Drawing on original empirical work conducted in a Pentecostal Christian therapeutic community in the UK working in the area of addiction and rehabilitation, this paper investigates the spiritual landscapes of Pentecostal worship, and considers the emotional, spiritual and therapeutic sensibilities residents attach to, and experience during, practices of worship and prayer. By examining the complex intersections between belief, embodiment and performativity of religious practice, I illustrate how the distinct patterning of worship space can differently open out, and close down, capacities and affective atmospheres of the divine. Attention is given to the different ways in which the residents experienced this worship space, and the extent to which their presence therein created a range of therapeutic - and anti-therapeutic - experiences. Drawing on these narratives, this paper argues how the contingent configuration of care/control might be seen as both constraining and empowering for residents, underlining the importance for geographers of religion to ground conceptualisations of the staging and performance of spiritual landscapes in the divergent sensibilities and ethics of engagement individuals bring to these sites

This is an assignment that I had produced for the postgraduate taught module Religion in Contemporary Global Politics 2 (17425) taught by the brilliant Dr. Katherine E. Brown: https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/staff/profiles/tr/brown-katherine.aspx

This particular paper proposes various recommendations to responsible journalists to produce better media coverage concerning religious groups and faith practices.

Evidence-based practice is now a core element of many governments’ approaches to policy-making and social intervention. It has become a powerful movement that promises to change the content and structure of social work and its allied professions. Its emergence has generated much debate and raised challenging questions, however, particularly at the interface of research, policy, and practice.

This book provides a critical analysis of evidence-based practice in social work. It introduces readers to the fast changing research, policy, legislative, and practice context. It discusses what constitutes knowledge in social work, the values and beliefs that lie behind EBP and problems of implementation, formalisation and resource management. Reflecting on the challenges of transferring evidence-based practice to frontline social work practice, the authors argue that social work practice is not easily measured and systematised into best practice guidelines that disseminate proven diagnostic and effective intervention knowledge.

Using Actor Network Theory for the first time in the social work literature, Evidence-based Social Work illuminates how adopting the methodology and language of evidence-based practice fundamentally alters the conditions under which social work takes place. This book is vital reading for academics, practitioners, and students with an interest in contemporary social work practice and research.

Scholars of religion and theology on the one hand, and academics in the broad field of migration studies on the other, have been examining the intersections between religion and migration from disparate theoretical, methodological, and religious perspectives during the past decade. This groundbreaking multi-authored volume seeks to bring these multiple points of view together both by elucidating each approach and then bringing them into conversation with each other. As the anchor volume in the Palgrave Religion and Global Migrations series, Intersections of Religion and Migration will provide state-of-the-art reviews of academic debates in the field and also suggest productive ways in which scholars may enhance their study of religion and migration by engaging with and employing a variety of approaches to the topic, which will set out a research agenda for the coming decade and beyond.

Edited by Jennifer Saunders, Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh and Susanna Snyder.

Contributions include:
Jennifer Saunders, Susie Snyder and Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh: Introduction
Holly Straut Eppsteiner and Jacqueline Hagan: Religion as Psychological, Spiritual and Cultural Support in the Migration Undertaking
Kim Knott: Living Religious Practices
Zayn Kassam: Muslims in America: The Challenges of Migration and the Construction of Religious Identities
Khayti Y. Joshi: The Racialization of Religions in Migration
Hugo Cordova-Quero: Embodied (Dis)Placements - The Intersections of Gender, Sexuality, and Religion in Migration Studies
Ellen Posman: Home and Away: Exile and Diaspora as Religious Concepts
Stephen M. Cherry: Exploring the Contours of Transnational Religious Spaces and Networks
Daniel Groody: Migration - A Theological Vision
Benjamin Schewel: Ethics, Transcendence and Borders
Alastair Ager and Joey Ager: Religion, Forced Migration and Humanitarian Response
Erin K. Wilson and Luca Mavelli: Taking Responsibility: Sociodicy, Solidarity, and Religious-Sensitive Policy-Making in the Global Politics of Migration
Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, Susie Snyder and Jennifer Saunders: Tracing The Ways Ahead