Mark Chaves, a professor of sociology and religion who directs the National Congregations Study, said the Bush administration’s push to increase the flow of government money to faith-based organizations was reported widely by the media because of the church-state debates it provoked. But, he concluded, it did little to increase the role religious organizations have long played in America’s social-welfare system.
Chaves said that the proportions of congregations that provide social services (82 percent of all houses of worship), that have a staff member who devotes at least a quarter of their time to providing social services (11 percent) and that receive government funding for such services (4 percent) did not change between data collected in 1998 and in 2006-2007. In both surveys, about 6 percent of social services performed by congregations were done in collaboration with the government in some form (although not necessarily financial collaboration), while 20 percent were done in collaboration with a secular non-profit agency.
