Christianity Today interviews Joshua Dubois, the director of the Obama Administration’s newly-renamed Office for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships:
How do you respond to criticism from those who say that federal funding should not go to faith-based organizations?
We have tough problems here in our country and across the globe, and we need all hands on deck. That includes faith-based and community groups. If we’re going to address global climate change or make sure folks are getting out of poverty and back on their feet, we need to go to the institutions that are in these communities, which are local organizations—everything from Big Brother to the local church, synagogue, or mosque. I think it’s about the problems we need to solve, not who’s doing the solving. In many cases the folks who are out there working are these organizations.
Have you looked at any research that looks at how effective faith-based organizations are compared with other organizations?
There’s a lot of key research there, but it’s not about who does it better or worse as much as it is about how we need all hands on deck.
Read the full interview here. Read the New York Times‘s coverage of Dubois’s appointment here.