Faith-based initiative

From Religions Wiki

A faith-based initiative is an government funded religious organization that is focused on social welfare. Many of these promote their religious views while performing their government funded work. In the US, they are controversial for being a violation of the constitutional separation of church and state.

Being largely policy making made without any evidence, these programmes are largely ineffective and a waste of resources, paid for by the tax payer.

Prison rehabilitation[edit]

A US based faith-based initiative aimed at rehabilitating offenders, known as Innerchange Freedom Initiative, was found by researchers to be very effective at reducing re-offending rates. [1] However, their selection of which prisoners to include in their analysis was flawed due to selection bias. Only prisoners who were motivated enough to complete the program and who managed to find a job after prison were included in the test group. A better approach would be to consider all eligible prisoners and offer the program only to a random subset.

Abstinence-only sex education[edit]

Main Article: Abstinence-only sex education
"Hundreds of federally funded abstinence-only programs are run by faith-based groups. The Louisianna American Civil Liberties Union found that ... thousands of dollars went to programs that included prayers as well as continuous references to God, Jesus Christ, and the spiritual repercussions of sex before marriage. [2]"

References[edit]

  1. Duwe G, King M., Can faith-based correctional programs work? An outcome evaluation of the innerchange freedom initiative in Minnesota, Int J Offender Ther Comp Criminol. 2013 Jul;57(7):813-41. doi: 10.1177/0306624X12439397. Epub 2012 Mar 21.
  2. [1]

See also[edit]

External Links[edit]